The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas

Toy Theatre

Story by Ursula K. Le Guin

The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas tells the story of a city where everyone is happy. It is not a place of magic or fairy tale, but the joy of the people is pure and absolute. However, the health, happiness, tenderness, and beauty of their city relies solely on a child that lives beneath them all. This child is neglected, tortured; it once knew the same joy and comfort of the people of Omelas, making its current fear and misery all the more horrid.

Everyone in the city knows this child exists. They also know that any interaction with the child would do away with all the goodness that exists within Omelas.So the people of Omelas continue to live on, with the knowledge of the child but with no action to save it from its suffering.

But there are the few people who after witnessing the child, can no longer live in the idyllic city, and choose to walk away from Omelas.

I designed the proscenium of the toy theatre to look like the train platform of Omelas. As if the train doors are opening at the start of the story, and upon arrival, the joy and beauty of the city is immediately seen.

In the final scene when the few are walking away, I wanted the feeling of leaving somewhere on a train to represent how it felt for those that chose to walk. Once the doors close and you’re moving, there’s no time to look back.

Additionally, the story is told from the perspective of an onlooker. Our understanding of Omelas is fleeting; the gravity of their choices can only be understood by those of the city. As an audience, we’re meant to bear witness, but not experience — much like looking onto a street below from a train platform.

The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas
scene by scene:

"With a clamor of bells that set the swallows soaring, the Festival of Summer came to the city Omelas, bright-towered by the sea. Processions moved. Children dodged in and out, their high calls rising like the swallows’ crossing flights over the mus

"With a clamor of bells that set the swallows soaring, the Festival of Summer came to the city Omelas, bright-towered by the sea. Processions moved. Children dodged in and out, their high calls rising like the swallows’ crossing flights over the music and the singing. [...] Joyous! How is one to tell about joy? How do you describe the citizens of Omelas?"

"A child of nine or ten sits at the edge of the crowd, alone, playing on a wooden flute. He finishes, and slowly lowers his hands holding the wooden flute. As if that little private silence were the signal, all at once a trumpet sounds from t

"A child of nine or ten sits at the edge of the crowd, alone, playing on a wooden flute.
He finishes, and slowly lowers his hands holding the wooden flute.
As if that little private silence were the signal, all at once a trumpet sounds from the pavilion near the starting line. [...] They begin to form in rank along the starting line. The Festival of Summer has begun."

"Do you believe? Do you accept the city, the joy? No? Then let me describe one more thing. In a basement under one of the beautiful buildings of Omelas, there is a room. In the room a child is sitting. It sits hunched in the corner farthest from th

"Do you believe? Do you accept the city, the joy? No? Then let me describe one more thing. In a basement under one of the beautiful buildings of Omelas, there is a room. In the room a child is sitting. It sits hunched in the corner farthest from the two mops. It is afraid of the mops. It finds them horrible. It shuts its eyes, but it knows the mops are still standing there; and the door is locked; and nobody will come."

"They all know it is there, all the people of Omelas. They all know that it has to be there. They all understand that their happiness, the beauty of their city, the tenderness of their friendships, the health of their children, the wisdom of their s

"They all know it is there, all the people of Omelas. They all know that it has to be there. They all understand that their happiness, the beauty of their city, the tenderness of their friendships, the health of their children, the wisdom of their scholars, the skill of their makers, even the abundance of their harvest and the kindly weathers of their skies, depend wholly on this child’s abominable misery."

"At times one of the people who go to see the child does not go home to weep or rage, does not, in fact, go home at all. [...] They keep walking, straight out of the city of Omelas, through the beautiful gates. They walk ahead into the darkness, a

"At times one of the people who go to see the child does not go home to weep or rage, does not, in fact, go home at all. [...] They keep walking, straight out of the city of Omelas, through the beautiful gates. They walk ahead into the darkness, and they do not come back. The place they go towards is a place even less imaginable to most of us than the city of happiness. It is possible that it does not exist. But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas."

Louise

Foam Puppet

Character from A Crime in a Madhouse (1925) by Andre de Lorde

In trying to find inspiration for a foam puppet, I began learning about Le Théâtre du Grand Guignol — a theatre in Paris that was open from 1897 to 1962. They specialized in gruesome, naturalistic horror, and can be accredited for shaping the horror genre in media as we know it today.

Though puppetry was not an aspect of their work, their name can be translated directly as “Theatre of the Grand Puppet.” For this reason, I thought it would be interesting and a little funny to subvert the naturalistic style that the theatre was known for by making a character from one of their plays into puppet form.

initial sketch and inspiration images for facial features

This project came about as a way to learn subtractive sculpture, work with different types of foam than previously done, and further my sewing skills. I was also aiming to expand my knowledge of puppet making. I have prior building experience with shadow puppetry, toy theatre, and wooden rod puppets, but this has been my first venture in foam puppets.

puppet head carved from upholstery foam, then built up in certain areas

internal mechanism:

In the play, Louise gets her eyes stabbed in with a knitting needle. The puppets eyes retract back into the head by pulling on the felt piece between the eyes from within. There is an additional string that magnetizes to the top of the inside of the head, to help the puppeteer reset Louise’s eyeballs.

ONE EYE: While you were crazy, a beast got inside you, a cuckoo bird. She hid in your head. Behind your eyes!
LOUISE: (struggling) Ah!
ONE-EYE: If you continue to scream, I am going to have to shut you up good. So listen to me! I’m going to rid you of the bird. Do you understand? She has stolen your eyes. That bird has removed your eyeballs and put hers in your sockets!
LOUISE: (filled with terror) No, no! Have pity! Please!

[…]

(ONE-EYE clinically touches LOUISE’S covered face and smiles. With her other hand she pulls the knitting needle from her pocket and quickly rams it through the cloth into Louise’s eye socket.)
LOUISE: (A new intense screaming) NO!!!
ONE-EYE: There! That’s it! Blood is flowing on my hands. It’s warm, it’s good! It’s just like the blood of an infant! A tiny, beautiful child! (ONE-EYE stabs LOUISE’S other eye.)

-Excerpt from A Crime in a Madhouse by Andre de Lorde

hair: brushed out yarn, machine sewn into tracks, hand sewn into head, and styled

puppet body patterned onto 1” foam, covered in fleece
puppet arms carved from foam, covered in fleece, inserted into body
arm sleeve attached to head

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