Tuesday, September 17th; 11.00 h; Cultural Centre Travno venue; 5+; 45 minutes; in Croatian
Staging any fairytale from the most famous collection of Croatian literary heritage for children – Croatian Tales of Long Ago by Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić – is a big challenge for any theatre and every theatre artist. The challenge was taken on by Ivana Vuković, the author of the new text based on the motifs from the fairytale Reygoch and the actor and puppetry director Branimir Rakić who, with this play, graduated in Puppetry Direction at the Academy of Arts and Culture in Osijek, mentored by Tamara Kučinović.
The boy Lilio, the fairy Curlylocks and the giant Reygoch are the main protagonists of this story, in which the destructive force of disagreement and disunity is opposed by the constructive power of togetherness and true friendship, which is not bothered by the set boundaries, differences, one’s size, or a different way of thinking.
SPLIT CITY PUPPET THEATRE, REPUBLIC OF CROATIA
The first premiere of the first professional Croatian puppet theatre was an adaptation of the contemporary Russian story The Icy Hill, on 2 August 1945.
Since its foundation, the Split City Puppet Theatre has had a consistent repertoire policy based on the staging of national and world literary heritage and the promotion of recent Croatian and foreign drama for children.
In its productions, the theatre questions the world in which children live today and tries to establish communication from the stage with each and every child in the audience.
The Split City Puppet Theatre stages three to four puppetry and children’s theatre premieres for children between the ages of 3 and 10 annually and also reprises around 10 plays every season. More than 300 performances are seen by more than 40,000 children every year. In 2008, Split puppeteers presented their own and other Croatian children’s theatre performances in Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary, Austria, Italy, Germany, Mexico, Iran, Egypt, Slovenia, Serbia and Macedonia. The theatre has a large collection of professional accolades and awards received at numerous foreign and domestic festivals.
The City Puppet Theatre is focused on promoting domestic drama for children and is the organiser of the Croatian Dramatic Writing Festival for Children Mali Marulić. In addition to Croatian authors, the theatre also stages classics from around the world in dramatic and puppetry form, as well as performances for adults that deal with the challenges of raising children and young adults and them growing up.
