In the realm of puppets, a theatrical forum

A new character, Interlialka (“Interpuppet”), appeared on stage of Uzhhord’s theater Bavka twenty years ago. This name was also assigned to an international festival of puppet theaters. The idea of this forum came from Oleksandr Turianytsia, who was the theater’s director at the time. Since its inception, the festival has become a prestigious international review of puppet theater art. The forum has now been entered into the calendar of the International Puppetry Association (UNIMA), and Interlialka is now well known all over the world.

By tradition, the festival has a versatile program. In addition to the Ukrainians, puppeteers from Serbia, Bulgaria, Belarus, Slovakia, Poland, Rumania, Russia, Hungary, and Turkey came to Uzhhorod to show their art. In spite of differences in schools, manner of staging, and the literary basis of productions, the festival makes it possible to see a certain “profile” of this genre of theatrical art. Audiences could see classic fairytales, stage adaptations, pieces of world dramaturgy, and something from the adult repertoire. The shows displayed almost all puppetry techniques — from traditional rod puppets hidden behind the curtain and finger puppets, to the complex systems of marionettes. But what always remains unchanged in the shows is the prevalence of a live actor’s presence. This is the main problem of today’s puppet theater, which poses a serious threat to its very essence because substituting an actor for a puppet results in a purely children’s show rather than one based on puppets.

Yet, in addition to the attempts to use the puppet as an illustrative inanimate object, the festival included productions that amply revealed and showed the potential of a stage puppet.

In the Bulgarian production Rapuntsel by Minovska-Devedieva (State Puppet Theater in Sliven), stage sets were literally “growing” before the spectators’ eyes from some objects on the floor. Multicolored castles and towers emerged along the taut ropes, while big marionettes with gawking eyes on their expressive faces were graciously walking about. Actors skillfully manipulated the destinies of their fairytale characters.

It took four actors to operate the little baby mouse Mufu in the Turkish production Daylight by Petkov (Lueleburgaz, Ucan Eller Puppet Theater), who wants to make friends with the lame ballerina Odile. They remained invisible in a black room: one could only see the manipulations that brought the little animal into motion. The audience particularly enjoyed the two huge fluffy paws of a cat that chases the baby mouse.

The Tula Puppet Theater brought a samovar. The sparkling and jocular musical production was based on active interaction between the live settings and the puppets. The marionettes — a nice-looking fox, a bear, a wolf, a rooster, and a tomcat — were made of large colored headscarves. The actors put heads with finny characteristic faces onto their hands, while the headscarf trunk fluttered freely and lived a life of its own. The merry carnival looked like a kaleidoscope of songs, dances, and funny jokes.

There was also an adult production in the fest’s program. The maitre of puppet productions Oleg Zhiugzhda (Belarus) turned to Lesia Ukrainka’s legendary breath-taking drama The Forest Song and brought his concept to fruition with the help of actors from the Uzhorod-based Bavka Theater. The production is dominated by live actors. The stage space is “inserted” into a stylized big-size thorny crown that goes down to the middle of the stage, where there is a grand piano on the lid of which the love story of the puppets Mavka and Lukash unfolds. The piano is a symbol of beautiful art, which all the characters of Lesia’s song express in their own way. Nails are driven in to it as if it were a coffin, the strings are torn away, and the puppet Lukash will eventually slide down its raised glittering lid into oblivion. The exalted philosophy of the text, the depth of poetry, the symbolic puppets, and other components of the production create a vibrating atmosphere of being aware of and admiring the pleasures of life and, at the same time, the fear of power of nature, which a human mind is not destined to fathom.

The Interlialka 2010 Grand Prix was awarded to Little Philip and the Witch by Kovalev produced by Zhiugzhda at the Kosice Puppet Theater, Slovakia. This master once again convincingly showed his flair and ability to give the leading role to a puppet. The plot of this play by the Belarusian author Kovalev resembles the well-known fairytale about Ivasyk-Telesyk. Four actors in national costumes come into the space of an imaginary house, containing various attributes of country life, such as a thatched roof, embroidered blinds, and a weaving loom. They then begin to tell the story about an elderly couple who had no children: the old man carved a little boy out of a log, and Philip began to gladden the hearts of his parents. Now he has decided to help them angle fish, and we can see a small trough in which Philip is sailing in a tiny boat, with fish splashing around. The first thing the show fascinates you with is the wonderful harmony between actors and puppets on the stage. They interact so harmoniously and convincingly that this creates an effect of puppets living on their own. The voices of the characters are also great, especially that of Yezhy-Baba and Philip. You can only wonder at the flood of the director’s ruses that pervade the entire show. The production is distinguished with a high mastery of puppetry. The virtuoso actors managed to build the puppet characters’ image very accurately in terms of plasticity and vocal. The emotional contact between the stage and the audience, which was established in the very first minutes of the show, overcame the language barrier. As an energetic and cheerful fairytale, completely devoid of banalities and repetitions, and fresh in terms of direction and scenography, the show did not leave either the little or the adult spectators indifferent. Incidentally, their number increases with every festival. Generations are changing, tiny tots are growing up, and young ones are coming. The puppet theater has good times ahead, for it will always be playing to full houses. The Uzhhorod-based Interlialka is equally fortunate.