VECERNJI LIST, September 2, 2000, Croatia
LAST NIGHT THE 33m INTERNATIONAL PUPPET THEATRE FESTIVAL OPENED
(Caption: The PIF mascot strolled through the city announcing the puppet festival)Witches Came Too
With the show The Little Sorceress performed by member of the Warsaw Theatre Academy, after introductory words from the deputy mayor, Mladen Vilfan, the 33rd PIF - the International Puppet Theatre Festival - opened in the overflowing hall of the ITD Theatre. The Little Sorceress is the charming 3rd year exam piece of the Puppet Academy in Bjalystok, in which ten young women and young men animate brooms in lively fashion and transform them into - witches.
To the delight of the youngest members of the audience, the official opening of the Festival was preceded by a parade of the players on Ban Jelacic Square, lead by the giant puppet with the gentle face, the PIF's mascot. Stopping right beside the Ban's statue, the actors from the Budapest Puppet Theatre Hattyu-Dal performed St. Francis and the Wolf from Gubbi for the crowd.
It was hard to remain unmoved at the magic of their acting, and the impressive music and costumes. Among those who gathered to watch we encountered the mezzo-soprano Ljerka Li-Zilavec and the musician Kreso Oreski, who, in their admiration for the performance, postponed the rehearsal to which they had been going.
Zelimir Ciglar
VECERNJI LIST, September 6, 2000, Croatia
The International Puppet Theatre Festival
(Caption: A scene from the Hungarian Legend of King Ladislav)Diversity, but as part of traditional puppetry techniques is how, one could sum up the course to date of the 33`d International Puppet Theatre Festival - the PIF. However, the puppeteers from Hungary stepped out of that framework with their Legend of King Ladislav which they performed the night before last at the ITD Theatre. Although the absence of sub-titles was a shortcoming which was deeply felt, this show which is largely verbal theatre, was a welcome opportunity to get to know something about an interesting approach to the puppet utilised by the Swan Song Theatre. Hungarian tradition was used to the full to tell the legend of the Hungarian king and saint, Ladislav. The unusual musical instruments used in the production were most interesting, while the Hungarian independent artists did not draw back - in addition to using costumes - from evoking the elements of other theatre cultures and traditions, even from as far away as Japan. These artists do, of course, conceive globalisation as a return to their tradition and faith, but they remain open to the influences which come from other cultures.
Zelimir Ciglar
VJESNIK, September 6, 2000, Croatia
FESTIVAL
(Caption: A puppet journey into the past. From The Legend of the Saintly King Ladislav)About Puppets And Legends
THE 33rd INTERNATIONAL PUPPET THEATRE FESTIVAL IN ZAGREB / THE PERFORMANCE OF THE LEGEND OF THE SAINTLY KING LADISLAV BY THE HATTYÚ-DAL THEATRE FROM BUDAPEST
Marta Tomory wrote the text for the puppetry play The Legend of the Saintly King Ladislav on the basis of the legends, ballads and folk songs/poems about King Ladislav. It was performed by the Hattyu-Dal Theatre from Budapest on Monday at the ITD Theatre. Using folklore elements and following the narrative structure of the model, the Hungarian puppeteers reconstructed an image of the 11th century world through the story of the king and saint, who connected cultures, communities, and people.
"This is a piece about faith and fidelity, virtues which seem more and more to be the privilege of holy jesters" it says in the programme. From the perspective of the chaotic end of our millennium, it tries to remind us of certain values - seemingly forgotten today - in a naivete of depiction which suits the theme and those motifs which attract and director, Zsolta Szasza and the four actors.
Twelve scenes from the life of King Ladislav are presented by various puppets (ranging from wooden statues to tiny puppets), masques, dance and music, and a luxuriant scenography which sketches our the framework and orientation of the stage events. On the border of ritual, the Legend of the Saintly King Ladislav as presented by the Hattyu-Dal Theatre offers an insight into that segment of the puppet theatre which re-examines historical material in contiguity with folklore motifs. (The production would have been even more attractive to the Zagreb audience if it had been performed with sub-titles.)
Dubravka VRGOC
SLOBODNA DALMACIJA, September 7, 2000, Croatia
The 33rd International Puppet Theatre Festival Visions In The Reservation
(Caption: A scene from the show The Amazing Adventures of Hlapic the Apprentice)As many as eight productions were played on the fourth and fifth days of the PIF: along with the creations by Bulgarian, Hungarian and Slovenian puppeteers, the projects of five Croatian theatres were performed. Among the shows from abroad, special mention should be made of The Legend of the Saintly King Ladislav, played by the Hattyu-Dal Theatre company from Budapest, devised with a host of folklore elements.
As part of the morning programme of the 4' day of the 33`d PIF, two shows were presented: the Harkov Dani and Desi Theatre's A Short Kre-Kre Story, performed by the Bulgarian female actor Tanja Evtimova, and Zdenka Mizure's Flight of the Dragonfly produced by the City Puppet Theatre from Split, with Dunja Adam directing.
The Legend of the Saintly King Ladislav was shown in the evening programme, directed by Zsolt Szasz and performed by the Hattyu¬Dal Theatre company from Budapest. This ensemble, whose name means Swan¬Song in translation, was founded at the beginning of the 1990s and its productions are the outcome of collective work: as well as appearing on stage as actors and musicians, the five members of the Hattyu-Dal Theatre also create the puppets, the masques and scenography, and work together on the dramaturgical shaping of their productions.
The Legend of the Saintly King Ladislav, compiled on the basis of legend, ballads and folk poems/songs about the Hungarian saint/king, Ladislav. This personage who has become the embodiment of the Mediaeval ideal of chivalry, whose saint cult spread during the Middle Ages throughout Croatian, partly due to the fact that it was Ladislav who, in 1091, founded the Zagreb bishopric.
The Hungarian production, in the spirit of naive folk-sacral theatre, is interesting primarily because of the host of folklore elements used. One found everything here - from archaic songs and music played live on ancient instruments, through the costumes and props, to simple choreographic solutions stemming from ritual patterns - and the play seemed to have sprung from some ethnological reservation. The legendary episodes from Ladislav's life and the Apocalyptic visions of his nation, torn apart by wars and ancient curses, are given form in simplified language and brought to life with images from ancient folk conceptions.
Through twelve separate episodes (the beggar's vision, the Virgin Mary's revelation, the King and the Jester, the attack by forebears...), Zsolt Szasz and the company manage to create a very impressive image of the times and bring to life a host of theatrical forms from folk culture, in which the puppets, at least as far as the PIF was concerned, have only a supporting role, appearing as if by the way, in a gignol episode and as large, wooden processional figures. The manner of acting interpretation springs completely from the register of naive folk plays, which in this case helped to give the harmonious impression of the integrity which the Hungarian show undoubtedly created.
Hrvoje IVANKOVIC
