Impressions of Karakumu asilelis
Impressions of the Fourth International Puppet Festival "Karakumu
asilelis" ["The donkey from the Karakum", trans.], Klaipeda, Lithuania,
27-29 April.
... We are used to puppet theatres usually aiming for an audience of
children in order to amuse the little spectators.
Are topics such as death and holocaust suitable for a children's show? No,
they aren't, are they? You cannot "stick" such issues on the sweets of the
theatres and the food industry.
With its performance "Sand between your toes", it is precisely the tragic
experiences of history the Norwegian theatre company "Fusentast" tries to
convey. (Scriptwriter, artist and actor Jaap den Hertog says he relied on a
relative's life story.) An old woman on her deathbed tells her
grandchildren about the family's complicated history. How her eccentric
relatives married, started their business, argued, and reconciled before
World War II began. The large family was wiped out in the concentration
camp crematoria. Only two youngsters managed to escape...
The actors J. den Hertog and Coby Omvlee make use of a "cabinet theatre"
(set designers Inka Lill and Gunnar Fretheim). In the closet different
characters appear in dozens of opening doors, windows and drawers.
Sometimes the action stops and they turn to the children with questions:
What do you think when you hear the word "war"? Do you know who Adolf
Hitler was? Which crimes did he commit? ... There is a deathly silence on
stage as an actress folds up the collar on her black coat and the SS
markings become visible. At the front of the stage a confused person
defends himself during an interrogation. A female person, who embodies
Nazism, takes a slow step in the direction of a picture of a Jewish family
hanging on the cabinet. Slowly she pulls out one of the Jew's silhouettes
from the image, leaving a dark, faceless shadow instead of a human. Slowly
she opens the door at the bottom of the cabinet, where a red light shows
up. ... After having thrown the silhouette in, she kicks the door closed
with a bang. The interrogation continues. In the same way other the other
family members end up being thrown into the "furnace". In the picture, only
two young people remain, surrounded by dark shadows. An aptly expressive
detail, an unconventional solution that moves the imagination.
In educational performances it is hard to avoid some form of schematic
thinking. Let's say that the German army was presented ... in the same way
as the Soviet era propaganda posters - and the audience was intimidated by
the soldiers' distorted and beastly faces...