Ukrainian Puppeteers Ready to Take on Barbie
Last week Vinnytsia hosted the Third Podillia Puppet International Puppet Theaters Festival. This year’s festival was held under the aegis of Ukraine’s Ministry for Culture and the Arts along with the Vinnytsia city and oblast administrations. It is held every odd year, while in the even years Ukraine’s best puppet troupes of Ukraine go to Uzhhorod for the Inter-Puppet Festival. While the latter includes mostly Christmas fairy tales and vertep folk shows, in Vinnytsia they perform virtually everything, even adult puppet shows. “This is one of the newest trends in puppet theater,” says Mykhailo Baidiuk, director of the Podillia Puppet 2003 festival.
An adult show differs from a children’s one in more serious topics and complicated production. But basically it remains the same fairy tale with its good and bad sorcerers. They are the characters most beloved by both children and adults. Actors do not divide their puppets into prima donnas and ordinary ones. For them every puppet is a whole life. It is hard to see the boundary between the puppet and actor; everything merges. Such a synthesis of the actor’s craft and the puppet formulates the current canons of puppet theater. “One man shows, where an actor works onstage with his (or her) puppet and draws the audience into his game, are the future of chamber theaters,” believes Vitaly Striltsov, director of the Zhytomyr Oblast Puppet Theater.
At the previous festival the Zhytomyr Theater presented a show where one actor acted for himself and eight puppets, simultaneously playing five instruments. This year Russia’s Briansk Puppet Theater followed their example, putting on a one-man show. The presence of this troupe and a Polish one from Warsaw made the festival international. The Zhytomyr Theater again amazed the public. While in an ordinary show usually three or four puppets are used, and six or seven in a complex one, they performed the show, “Good Little Devil,” involving twenty-six marionettes!
Usually people come to the festival not only to display their own attainments but also learn from others. The Zhytomyr Theater, winner of the previous two festivals, takes lessons from Donetsk and Vinnytsia. They are the only puppeteers in Ukraine boasting two meritorious and two people’s artists in their troupe. Vinnytsia’s fantoccini speak six languages and go on tours all over the world. This is why they host the festival. Over 6000 Vinnytsia residents were present at the twelve shows of the twelve theaters presented at the festival. Primarily they were children and their parents.
“Good and justice is something you can see in every show and none of the television channels,” said one of the spectators.
“A puppet show brings people closer together and help them find a common language with children. If every family had a chance to spend time together so that it was interesting for both children and parents, families would become stronger,” adds another.
Meanwhile, the children hardly think of such things. They are amazed with the fact that the nice little devil and other puppets are better than Barbie. They can walk, talk, and even wink their eyes. And for the actors the children are the grand jury.
