David Lane

Émile Zola’s The Belly of Paris
DAVID LANE & COLLABORATORS
In Residence: August 24 to September 7, 2025
Presentation: September 6, 2025
Craftpaper Puppetry Workshop: September 7, 2025

Artist and theater maker David Lane created a puppetry adaptation of Émile Zola’s novel The Belly of Paris, an epic tale of the working class in 19th-century Paris. Written in 1873, The Belly of Paris followed two families during the Second French Empire, and was Zola’s first novel entirely about the working class. To reinforce the values of the characters and the story’s place in time, Lane used only materials that would have been around in the 1870s—favoring wood, papier-mâché, and natural fabrics—rather than plastics and other modern puppetry technologies.

Lane, based in North Adams and raised in Canada, frequently collaborated on puppetry projects abroad, often rooted in history or current events—The Return of the Buffalo to Banff National Park; The Story of Rose Valland, about the woman who helped save countless European paintings from destruction during WWII; and a narrative play about Newfoundland’s tradition of mummering.

Because one of Zola’s closest friends was the painter Cézanne (and because Cézanne inspired a recurring character in Zola’s series), Lane built a saturated and layered look into his puppet characters to reflect Cézanne’s style.

Émile Zola’s The Belly of Paris was the recipient of a 2025 Jim Henson Foundation Workshop Grant and received a Northern Berkshire Local Cultural Council Grant.