Choose a day:
THE OPENING OF THE FESTIVAL
Puppet Theater The Big Hall
THE SCARLET UMBRELLA | Eesti Noorsooteater Theater | Estonia
10 am.
The Scarlet Umbrella” sets on a theatre stage the childhood games of two sisters, the mirth, fun and moods – and the rain that speaks in Latin. A well-known poem by Estonian poetess Betti Alver has inspired a show without words that is easy to understand for everyone from the age of three.
THE MAGIC OF THE GIANT MARIONETTES IN PUBLIC SPACES | Kaunas State Puppet Theater
10:30 am.
On the first day of the festival, an enlarged puppet of Stasys Usinskas’ “Singer” will be unveiled at the entrance to the main Puppet Theatre, made by the masters of Kaunas Puppet Theatre according to old drawings and sketches.
KAUNAS BEAST | Kaunas State Puppet Theatre
11 am.
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.
Workshop I AM CREATING A FAIRYTALE | Kristina Norvilaitė-Geniušienė
11 am.
My work often explores the theme of childhood, as I often draw inspiration from my childhood experiences. I have been visiting the Kaunas Puppet Theatre my whole life, and the experiences I had here as a child have formed the backbone of my artistic world. To return here to exhibit my work feels like coming full circle. I want to explore the child’s world. Every year I discover some code from my childhood hidden in my consciousness. When I find it, I have to solve it. This is how another exhibition comes into my life.
THE QUEEN OF THE SEAGULL | Latvia Puppet Theater
12 am.
Renata is an ordinary, morose neighbour who cannot stand many things in this world, often writes complaints to the city council and grumble about the children’s noisy chatter. She is especially bothered by seagulls, which for some reason loudly intrude her yard. Renata lives in some town’s multi-storey house, in a small apartment, a look inside which allows discovering a very unusual secret. What is Renata really like? Maybe she is just enchanted?
ME – THE BEAST | Kaunas State Puppet Theater
6 pm.
A performance for young people “Me -The Beast” follows a young person in today’s world discovering an “animal” of creativity within himself. What do we think when seeing “cool” looking teenagers on the streets? “They’re animals! They must not be very nice.” We’re used to being scared of what’s unknown to us.
MAGICAL HISTORY OF THE PUPPETS: IN THE THEATER AND ANIMATION | Kaunas State puppet Theater
11 am.
Do you know who made the first Lithuanian puppet film with sound called “Chubby man’s dream”? Or who was the Lithuanian pioneer animator? Would you like to know?! Yes? We invite you to join the educational program “Magic story of puppets: in theatre and animation”!
Japanese shadow theater performance ANIMARE
12 am. and 4 pm.
Surely, everyone has a memory of playing with “hand shadow” at least once. Yet, we have advanced and developed the hand shadows into a higher performative technique. In our performances beautiful images are manipulated by lights and shadows, and various silhouettes of animals are woven up by acrobatic hands.We, KAKASHIZA present the piece named “Hand Shadows ANIMARE” in this show, hand shadow animals portray a loving story full of humor. You may be surprised by the fact that the animals are consisted by only performers’ bare hands and bodies.
PLAIN BOB | Noisy Oyster | UK
12 am.
The show is canceled for certain reasons.
Plain Bob is an innocent and gentle show with no words, an interactive audience adventure under Bob’s umbrella world. As the audience watches, the stage is created from suitcases, an umbrella, and a rain coat. Audience members are invited to the stage to help Bob with his simple tasks. The show is accompanied by original music and sound effects that are triggered discretely by a second performer who also at times magically controls Bob via radio control.
The show has been described as beautiful and poetic. The finale of the show is a mini rain shower underneath the umbrella.
DREAM OF ANDERSON (The Tin Soldier) | Panevezys’s Puppet Wagon Theater
1 pm.
A story about the imperfect and “unfinished” Tin Soldier troubled by thoughts about the most special and beautiful Ballerina.
Based on a fairytale by H. K. Andersen “ANDERSEN’S DREAM” (TIN SOLDIER), directed by O. Dmitrijeva.
ASTEROID | Campi Qui Pugui | Spain
1 pm. and 5 pm.
A meteorite has fallen in the street. The scientific team SpaceGuard approach it. But unexpected events start to happen. A show that, through absurd humour, confronts how we relate to the unknown and cultural differences. A production managed by Toti Toronell that combines puppets and actors with the aim of achieving a surprising and transforming impact in a public space.
ROBOT AND THE BUTTERFLY | Bialystok puppet Theater | Poland
2 pm.
“Robot and the Butterfly” is a presentation of permanent and deep feelings that can unite each of us, as well as very fragile and fleeting beauty, which worth seeing on time. The performance was created on the basis of a history written by the Lithuanian author of Vytautė Žilinskaitė. It’s a story about the Robot who falls in love with a completely different world – in a butterfly. The mechanical hero discovers real feelings, such as love, empathy, attachment, but also fear, and regret …
DELICIOUS STORY | Panevezys’s Puppet Wagon Theater
5 pm.
Have you ever seen how puppets are born? No? In a play “Delicious story” you will. Not only will you see how they are born, you will learn a lot too. The performance is very modern, interactive and informative of how you can make puppets and even stage plays using primitive sources.
WHISPER OF THE SUBCONSCIOUS MINDS… DREAMS | Shadow Puppet Theater “Papasony”
6 pm.
Without the light – we are just miserable creatures that struggle in labyrinths of our unconscious minds in the hope to wake up to Life. A shadow play about the person’s thorny path for the Life light.
PEREGRINUS | Theater KTO | Poland
6 pm.
A wandering theatre show inspired by poetic works of T.S. Eliot depicts a single day in the life of a contemporary everyman. In an appealing visual form, with attractive choreography and grotesque mode of presentation taken with a pinch of salt, it painfully exposes the traps of contemporary world, in which many of us fall unreflectively losing the distinctiveness of our souls. Does the collective possession of the Peregrinuses have an end? In this journey do we fall prey to the dybbuks or do we become them?
Creative workshop WHAT KIND OF CATERPILLAR ARE YOU? | Sensory Theatre | Lithuania
1 am. and 1 pm.
The show is canceled for certain reasons!
Using a rich arsenal of different tools, children with their accompanying adults and the creators of the theatre of the senses will create a caterpillar, their own individualised sensory toy. By touching, listening and playing with special materials, children will discover their own sensory-compliant caterpillar design and fill it with heavy, stretchy, soft sounding or squeaking objects of their liking. After the workshop, they will be able to bring the new “friends of peace” home and use it to concentrate, relax or release accumulated energy through senses.
THE EMPEROR’S NEW CLOTHES | Maribor and Rijeka Puppet Theaters | Croatia – Slovenia
12 am.
Like many of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales and stories, this story about an emperor who due to his own stupidity believed liars and thieves, is still relevant today. In an old abandoned textile factory, two children are playing. Ropes, fabrics, threads, lamps and shadows become their toys. Children tell stories and imagine a world in which the factory reopens and their parents have a job again. The only way to achieve this in the real world is to persuade the emperor to reopen the factory. But perhaps there is another way: deception.
MAGICAL HISTORY OF THE PUPPETS: IN THEATER AND ANIMATION | Kaunas State puppet Theater
12 am.
Do you know who made the first Lithuanian puppet film with sound called “Chubby man’s dream”? Or who was the Lithuanian pioneer animator? Would you like to know?! Yes? We invite you to join the educational program “Magic story of puppets: in theatre and animation”!
ASTEROID | Campi Qui Pugui | Spain
12 am. and 2 pm.
A meteorite has fallen in the street. The scientific team SpaceGuard approach it. But unexpected events start to happen. A show that, through absurd humour, confronts how we relate to the unknown and cultural differences. A production managed by Toti Toronell that combines puppets and actors with the aim of achieving a surprising and transforming impact in a public space.
PLAIN BOB | Teatras ,,Noisy Oyster”
13:00 val.
The show is canceled for certain reasons.
Plain Bob is an innocent and gentle show with no words, an interactive audience adventure under Bob’s umbrella world. As the audience watches, the stage is created from suitcases, an umbrella, and a rain coat. Audience members are invited to the stage to help Bob with his simple tasks. The show is accompanied by original music and sound effects that are triggered discretely by a second performer who also at times magically controls Bob via radio control.
The show has been described as beautiful and poetic. The finale of the show is a mini rain shower underneath the umbrella.
UNDERWATER | Maze
15:00 ir 17:00 val.
PEREGRINUS | Theater KTO | Poland
18:00 val.
A wandering theatre show inspired by poetic works of T.S. Eliot depicts a single day in the life of a contemporary everyman. In an appealing visual form, with attractive choreography and grotesque mode of presentation taken with a pinch of salt, it painfully exposes the traps of contemporary world, in which many of us fall unreflectively losing the distinctiveness of our souls. Does the collective possession of the Peregrinuses have an end? In this journey do we fall prey to the dybbuks or do we become them?
Children Theatre’s performances
10 am. and 5pm.
ABOUT AIRCRAFTS AND ALEXANDER | Family Theatre “Linas Puppets” | Lithuania
10 am.
This performance tells the story of Aleksandras Griskevicius, a pioneer of Lithuanian aviation, constructor, philosopher and inventor, who lived in the first half of the 19th century. His story invites you to chase heavens – fearlessly create what today seems impossible. The historical narrative turns into an allegory, exploring man’s desire to fly, ascend to heaven and break away from the Earth. “This is a performance about an idea of how not to lose hope and faith in your dreams, not about specific events or aircrafts. After all, even a burnt-out idea can become the basis for further discoveries” says the director Linas Zube.
CHORNO – DWARVES Chrono-Dwarves | Bratislava Puppet Theater
11 am.
An adventurous story about a journey towards The Tooth of Time in the form of puppet cinema. You can see the result of their work every day, but you haven’t had the chance to see them until today. Who are they? Chrono-dwarves – servants of the Tooth of Time. They damage computers, bleach clothes, erase road markings. To put it briefly, everything in this world is getting older thanks to them. Chrono-dwarves are taught at school that, in doing so, they carry out their duties to mankind.
HAIKU OF SIBERIA | Table theatre | Lithuania
12 am. and 6 pm.
Depth of the universe out of three grains of rice is the credo for the creators of the Haiku of Siberia. The performance is based on the texts from Jurga Vile’s book of the same name. The exile story of the writer’s father Algimantas Stakenas is told through the lips of a 10 year old boy, revealing the fate of many Lithuanians. The most important medium of this stage-game is earth. It gives rise to all the characters in the story, concisely conveys the historical actions and consequences of the war.
Performance THE BIG BANG
10 am.
The “Big Bang” world is created with the help of various details of electronic devices. This performance could be treated as prehistory for the play “Planet Egg”, bringing the audience to the beginning of beginnings when everything was formed by the Big Bang. The universe hosts many planets, in one of which we observe the life of a small robot and their dog living inside the thriving world of society, cities and cultures, one day faced with danger – rain. Is the water going to destroy the world of metal and various electronic appliances? What of the robot and their dog during this tragedy of climate change? This is the time for humanity to question not only how life came into being, but also how it’s going to end.
THE DIARY OF JACOBS | Kaunas state Puppet Theater
11 am.
Sketch NEST | Vilnius Theatre “Lele” | Lithuania
12 am.
The origins of “Nest” are wall plugs and Krylov’s fables. These are seemingly simple, short pieces. Simple enough to be a little absurd; for the reader of today, at least. Most of the visual elements for the sketch were created experimenting without clear, pre-conceived limitations during rehearsals. Actors, objects, and puppets operate on the same level in this process, balancing the verge of theatrical illusion and absurdity.
KING UBU | Vilnius Theatre “Lele” | Lithuania
6 pm.
King UBU, a play by the founder of the absurd theatre Alfred Jarry, is considered a work of chrestomathy in the history of puppet theatre. The production at the Vilnius Theatre “Lele” was taken on by Neville Tranter – director, actor and artist from the Netherlands, one of the most famous creators and educators of contemporary European puppet theatre. In absurd ways, the grotesque characters seeking power and control somehow remind you of the political events in today’s world. However, as per emphasis of Neville Tranter, the most important things in this play are relationships between people, Pa Ubu and Ma Ubu are husband and wife, bringing up a 14-year-old teenager who’s resisting being king… In this humorous, muppet-type puppet show the viewers will be invited to laugh not only at the characters, but also with them.
Festival’s closing ceremony!
FOREST OD GODS | Kaunas State Puppet Theater
7:30 pm.
Spektaklis sukurtas remiantis B. Sruogos romanu „Dievų miškas“, atskleidžiančiu II-ojo Pasaulinio karo metais Štuthovo (Lenkija) koncentracijos stovykloje patirtus išgyvenimus.
Nenutolstant nuo originalaus teksto ir išlaikant ironišką pasakojimo toną (pastatyme naudojamas Stand up komedijos žanras), spektaklyje vaizduojami prižiūrėtojų ir kalinių santykiai, lagerio hierarchija, sekinantys darbai, vargana buitis ir žmogaus orumą gniuždančios bausmės.