A DOG IS NOT JUST AN ANIMAL
Miljenko Smoje’s legendary dog Šarko, the protagonist of his book Pasje novelete (Dog Stories), is now the star of his own puppetry play.
Šarko was much more than just a dog; he was a companion who, in intellect, age, and experience, never lagged behind his master, thus earning the right to his irony and all forms of manipulation any beast, whether animal or human, uses to navigate its environment.
In Dog Stories, the bond and love between Smoje and Šarko “entered the record”, and now, on the theatre stage, in the play No Dog’s A Beast we reconstruct their walks, adventures, and dialogues in which Šarko, thanks to everything Smoje wrote about him, takes the lead in evoking their shared memories. This life is greater than the dog’s life he was condemned to until his path intertwined with the writer’s.
SPLIT CITY PUPPET THEATRE, REPUBLIC OF CROATIA
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.
