CHILDREN’S FESTIVAL
The theatre programme for children comprises 15 productions of puppet theatres and independent companies from five European countries: the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Ukraine, and Slovakia. The selection includes productions for all ages of children – ranging from 0 to 15. It presents various forms and methods in contemporary puppet theatre.
The featured productions are highly diverse in content; they open such themes as home and small invisible significant things in life; they bring contemporary approach to classic national fairy-tale; they address friendship between man and dog, ecology, thoughts about old age, about the courage to dream and be oneself. There are plays with shadows, poetry, words, sounds, and fantasy.
The performances present quite diverse contemporary puppet theatre tools that reflect the intersections of all kinds of art. The Festival is a sampler of productions with different ways of communicating with audience – from silent participation to live interaction, and audience participation in the play.
Children’s theatres from Denmark and Germany will feature for the first time not only in Banská Bystrica, but in Slovakia, as will our colleagues from the Czech Republic – the young Czech–Slovak company Zdruhestrany, the Prague-based soloist Andrej Lyga, and the Lampión Theatre Kladno.
The children’s festival is an example of the aforementioned qualitative expansion of puppet theatre. It is also a parade of the joy of creative freedom for children.
FESTIVAL FOR ADULTS
THROUGH THE LENS OF WOMEN & CURRENT SOCIO-HISTORICAL THEMES
The Festival programme for adults (or for adulty and youth) presents 9 stage productions from 4 countries: the Czech Republic (5), Finland (1), Israel (1) and Slovakia (2).
In connection with the Festival leitmotif Freedom is Art, we gave space to productions addressing socio-cultural and historical overlaps. The lens of women represents the second distinctive line of performances for adults and youth. For the first time ever, we have decided to draw attention to the lives and attitudes of women towards the above themes, to focus spotlight on female protagonists and, at the same time, the creative individuals behind the performances. Each performance is followed by a Q&A with the creative team focusing on the content of the production. The discussions will be chaired by Lukáš Kopas, Marián Pecko and Daniela Brezániová. (see Discussions)
Though most lay public still thinks that puppet theatre is for children, there is no denying that puppet theatre works for adults and youth have become a regular instrument of creation. The expansion of intergenerational, cultural–social and historical themes, taboos that are rarely discussed in art and the public, is a frequent phenomenon in puppet theatre bringing an expressive emotional theatre experience.
For years, we have been surrounded and troubled by such phenomena as extremism, radicalism, restriction of democracy, war and human suffering in war conflicts, necropolitics and permanent (e)migration. Thus, it comes as no surprise that two performances for adults are inspired by the works by the Nobel Prize in literature laureate Svitlana Alexievich (BDNR and Spitfire company Prague) who talks about people and totality so enticingly that her works cannot be forgotten. (That also applies to the two productions.) The sample of performances includes an author’s play by the theatre Líšeň with a highly important and little-addressed theme of aging and life as experienced by mature adults. The sample concludes with an evocative Finnish performance about the fate of (e)migrants in the so-called civilised European world.
Through the lens on women consists of five performances from Czech, Slovak, and one Israeli production. They focus on exceptional (little-known) female heroines. The productions simultaneously highlight the female experience in questions of freedom and lack of freedom, both in the past and present. We will encounter the lives of personalities such as Charlotte Masaryk, Ružena Zátková, Helen Keller, and Ann Sullivan, and not least the living legend of the Israeli visual performance and puppet theater scene, Michal Svironi. The sample is complemented by the story of ordinary sisters who excel in obedience and fear of authority.
The phenomenon of female creators and the so-called female perspective is not new, even in puppet theater, although in the Czech and Slovak context of puppet theater, it is hardly written or spoken about (which is certainly a pity). Abroad, female personalities like Ilko Schönbein (Germany), the theater and group Nicole Mossoux (Belgium), the Plexus Polaire theater led by Yngvild Aspeli (France/Norway), or the Belova Iacobelli group (names of the creators, Italy), Nathalia Sakowicz (Poland), etc., are renowned creators who bring a female perspective to the world.
The BB 24 Festival for Adults once again testifies to the diverse expansion of the theatrical resources of puppet theater. It is a testament to free creation.
The selection of productions for the festival program is formed from the end of one year to the opening of the next year, approximately two years. And this is based on the intersection of three forms of research into the creation of puppet theatre, based on the personal visit of the BDNR team to festivals (at home and abroad), the selection of registered theatres (application form with video recording), consultations with domestic and foreign experts* (from the Czech Republic, Poland, Germany, Finland, etc.). In 2023 and 2024, more than 30 productions of domestic and foreign puppet theatres applied for the selection.