Text:
Tarcisia Galbiati

Director and dramaturge:
Kim Komljanec

Actors and animators:
Kim Komljanec / Lea Menard, Dunja Zupanec, Emir Jušič Piber / Igor Štamulak

Puppet manufacturing:
Mateja Šušteršič in Neva Vrba

Original music and adaptation:
Of songs created by Darijan Božič:
Boštjan Gombač and Igor Leonardi

Visual design and costumes:
Katja Komljanec Koritnik

Set design and light design:
Katja Komljanec Koritnik

Co-production:
Mini teater and Zavod Zofka

Opening performance:
November 2007

Duration 35 min

Performance for children of any age

This vivid performance includes a number of songs that are easily adopted by any child.

About the performance

This is a story of a five-year Katka who cannot pronounce the letter R and she is therefore mocked by the children in kindergarden. She believes the duck swimming in the brook will help her find the letter R. She slips and falls into the water which is quite a shock for her little mind. In her mother's lap she goes asleep. In her dream the Golden Duck (Zlatoračka) takes her to the Rose Garden, where all letters of the alphabet are hiding in the flowers: L in the Lilly, U in the Tulip, S in the Jasmin, ... and R in the beautiful Rose. Yet the Rose is sick today, she has a terrible cold. And how will Katka help the Rose get better so she can give her the letter R? And what about the horrid Crab (Samorak) who is guarding this beautiful Rose Garden? Will Katka fight him? Or will she tame him into a gentle creature by singing him a song? The story has a happy ending, of course, and Katka wakes up in her mother's lap thrilled because now she can pronounce the R just like any child from her kindergarden.

The performance brings to life values that are rather forgotten in the present consumers' world (the beauty of the nature, clear speaking, kindness ...). Children are often subject of bullying and mocking,yet the society rarely offers a way to prevent them from physical or psychic violence. Directing children into kindness and tolerance is an important issue in the upbringing of our youngest who, one day, will be shaping this world. Striving for high goals must not exclude positive behaviour and qualitative relations among people.

This is an original Slovene text focusing on the beauty of language and nature. The visual design is based on metaphors from the animal and vegetal world which are lightly transferred into the child's world of imagination.

The story as a children radio tale was edited as audio-cassette by RTV Slovenia in 1979, when the present mums and dads had problems in pronouncing the letter R.