A busker walks out from behind the puppet stage, ukulele in hand, and sings a brief history of the art of puppetry. There was Punch and Judy, of course, but also Pulcinella, escaped from the commedia dell’arte; Guignol, of the sharp wit and heavy cudgel; Karagöz, the Turkish shadow puppet; and Kaspar and Gretel, originally from the German tradition, and here appearing as a bickering man and wife who scramble to survive war, bad sanitation and evil oppressors through the centuries, finally emerging into a scary but eerily recognizable present-day, complete with flush toilet, 3-D printer, and Donald Trump’s combover. The puppets were animated by Jana Zeller, of Spyglass Theater, whose performance of “Puppet Crimes” kicked off the first Greenwoods Puppet Festival at the Norfolk Library. Six other puppet groups performed during the weekend of Sept. 13 to 15, drawing a combined audience of 500, according to library sources.

Photos by Bruce Frisch