On Tuesday, January 9, 2007 the opening of the puppet performance Caliph Stork took place in the Mini teater in Ljubljana Castle. The text was re-written after germain writter Wilhelm Hauff by the bulgarian director Slavcho Malenov.
CALIPH STORK
Text after Wilhelm Hauff: Slavcho Malenov
Translation: Viktorija Menkadžijeva
Directing and dramaturgy: Slavčo Malenov
Puppets and set made by: Vasill Rokomanov
Music: Petar Tsankov
Puppets painted by: Silva Bachvarova
Acting:
Milan Štefe and Tomislav Tomšič
Puppet performance for children from 4 years up
The Story: A Caliph in Baghdad decides to live outside his golden palace, he wants to be useful to his people. From a secret old paper he learns that he can become a free creature by turning into a stork. After turning into a stork he discovers that his new appearance is just a spell performed by the evil sorcerer Kashnur, who wants to rule over Baghdad. The stork is unhappy, so he flies to the sacred town of Medina hoping to find some solution there. In the ruins of this old town he meets the ugly Awl, who is actually a bewitched Indian princess. She promises to help him yet he has to marry her in return. The Caliph Stork agrees. With the help of the Awl he learns the magic word that helps him to turn back into a human. He fights the mean Kashnur and beats him down. Then he keeps his promise and marries the ugly Awl. During the wedding ritual the evil magic dissolves and the Awl turns into a beautiful princess.
This marionette performance was created after a famous fairy tale written by Wilhelm Hauff. As most of the classical fary tales, Caliph Stork results to be a multi-layer story offering several themes for interpretation. The Bulgarian creative team and the actor/animator Robert Waltl chose 'freedom within the frame of the power of ruling' as their main topic in this story. The costumes and the set design are conceived in oriental style. All of the eleven marionettes are animated by one single actor (Robert Waltl). While narrating the story he brings to life different characters and offers comments to the dvelopment of the story.
