True History of Thra

A pivotal scene in the play, showing the Gelfling casting down the Castle of the Crystal

The True History of Thra was a theatrical play based on operatic singing and puppetry, devised and performed by skekGra the Heretic and urGoh the Wanderer. Prepared and rehearsed over the course of 379 trine during the authors' exile in the Circle of the Suns, the play was designed to galvanize the Gelfling into forming a resistance movement against the Skeksis Empire. The sets were part of urGoh's coat and, aside from a combination of hand and shadow puppets, incorporated both pyrotechnics and vapor effects.

It began with an opening monologue by a narrator wearing a fool's hat praising the audience, then moved on to an opera performance followed by the puppet show proper. The first act served as a summary of the past two thousand trine, and narrated the arrival of the urSkeks on Thra, as well as how they deceived Aughra into handing them guardianship of the Crystal. It then proceeded to describing the Great Division, the resulting Darkening and the later exile of skekGra and urGoh from their communities for promoting urRu-Skeksis unity. The second act was an enactment of the authors' prophetic visions, showing how the Gelfling could overthrow the Skeksis by finding the Dual Glaive and marching under the banner of the Aureyal.

It was performed only once, shortly after the Gelflings Rian, Deet, and Brea arrived at the Circle of the Suns. The performance was hampered by the lack of enthusiasm of the narrator, played by Hup, the lukewarm reception of the opera section, and the near immolation of urGoh when one of the pyrotechnic effects malfunctioned.

Related topics

• The Book of Aughra, a more detailed account of Thra's history in manuscript form, penned by Aughra and annotated by J. J. Llewellyn

Behind the scenes

Barnaby Dixon during rehearsals

The puppets were performed by self-taught puppeteer and YouTube sensation Barnaby Dixon, who was contacted by Louis Leterrier in August 2017 after his work had been found via a Google search. The primary inspiration behind the scene was the flashback sequence in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1.

The finger puppets were built by Toby Froud and Stephan Pehrsson, while Wendy Froud made their miniature clothes. The entire sequence was shot over two days.