• Age 4 +
• Duration – 40 min
• Location – The courtyard, Kaunas State Puppet Theatre

Director and writer – Andrius Ziurauskas
Art director – Dominykas Gutauskas
Composer – Raminta Naujanyte – Bjelle
Starring – Dominyka Budinaviciute, Ruta Kumpikaite / Remigijus Endriukaitis, Arvydas Sauciunas

Premiere: 25th of March 2021.

Performance “Kaunas Beast”

The two characters of the play Town Hall and Fountain invite you to get acquainted with the mysterious Mythical Beast of Kaunas, which has been sleeping in the basements of the Old Town for hundreds of years. The Beast, turns out, enjoys playing hide and seek.

Their game is not easy, you have to smell, hear, track, see, touch and, with the very best of luck, catch it.

Can you imagine what Kaunas Beast’s favourite dish smells like? Maybe coffee, vanilla or icing sugar? What the Beast sounds like? Maybe they echo, maybe they scream, maybe they rattle, maybe they shriek? Do they leave any trace behind them? Maybe they don’t have feet at all? What is the Beast like? Could they be a ghost, with no body at all? … Are they cold and hard, or are they soft and light?… The mythical Kaunas Beast is very excited to meet the audience.

Created on the principle of object theatre, the visual and playful experience focused production takes you on the journey to search for the Mythical Kaunas Beast using the main senses of the human body – sight, hearing, smell and touch. The actors in this playgame serve as the initiators of interactivity. Their goal is to involve young audiences into the flow of the performance, arouse their curiosity, imagination and creativity.

“Cognition is the greatest enemy of imagination, as it is of faith. A game without imagination is not interesting. I believe that a Beast lives in Kaunas. I live interestingly. ” (Dir. Andrius Ziurauskas).

Kaunas State Puppet Theatre

Kaunas State Puppet Theatre was founded by two drama actors Stasys Ratkevicius (1917 – 2010) and Valerija Gruodyte – Ratkeviciene (1916 – 2004) in the middle of the last century. Having started his creative path with a lot of successful roles and directing works behind him at the Klaipeda Drama Theatre, Ratkevicius matured to establish a dream that would not let him down – theatre for children.

The yearbook of theatre history, starting with the “Magic Lantern of Aladdin” and carrying a solid list of directors, artists, actors, scenographers, composers and names of more than 200 performances, about 2,000 puppet works and over 17,000 plays have already been seen by more than 2.7 million viewers. The theatre has successfully participated in many festivals, visiting over 20 foreign countries.

Tradition nurturing Kaunas Puppet Theatre is open to new cooperation offers and opportunities in Europe. The theatre participated in the project “Young Age”, funded by the

European Commission’s Culture Program in 2006, “The modern puppet museum transcends the boundaries of different cultures” in 2010 and “Family and children of modern Europe” in 2011.

The theatre is a member of the International Association of Children’s and Youth Theatres

ASSITEJ and the International Puppetry Organisation UNIMA.