Opening night of Little Flame directed by Robert Waltl in Split

Opening night of Little Flame directed by Robert Waltl in Split

The Split City Puppet Theatre started its season successfully with the opening night of the performance Little Flame, which was created after motives from the tale written by Dubravka Ugrešić, dramatised by ivica Buljan, and directed by Robert Waltl.

The tale collection Little Flame was written in 1971. It represents a rich and poetic line of tales for children for which the writer has been awarded most prestigeous awards in literature for children in Croatia. The main lodestar of this precious work is in the journey that Little Flame performs and meets a gallery of characters who are feeble, good, destructive, or just needing help. It also contains a characteristic construction of a tale which reminds us of Wilde, Andersen or Saint-Exupery. The book excels in specific style typical for this writer, it conveys a sense for smallness, for detail and contemporary female narrative. Today, Dubravka Ugrešić is the most popular in most translated Croatian author in the world. She wrote also the famous novels: Steffi Cvek in the Whirl of Life, The Forcing ot the River Novel, The Ministry of Lies, and she is the author of film scripts: Steffi Cvek and You Need Three for Happiness directed by Rajko Grlić.   

A thing of interest with the above performance is that the staging of Little Flame by Robert Waltl was the first presentation of this text in theatre. The main role in the performance is played by the prominent Croatian actress Dara Vukić, who is accompanied by the excellent

Ivica Beatović, Alin Majica, Andrea Majica, Milena Blažanović, Srđan Brešković and Ivan Medić. About this Waltl's performance, which was created in several phases, the critics wrote that »it is filled with effects, combined with traditional puppet theatre elements, from shadow puppets to most modern media approach. It is interlaced with cabaret pieces, dancing, songs, acrobatic show, video-walls, light magic, luxurious costumes and characters in the origami technique. This performace has been set ambitiously by a team of authors: Ben Cain for stage design, ana Savić-Gecan for costumes, Hrvoje Cokarić and Zdeslav Kukoć as music composers, and Natalija Manojlović as choreographer. A team of artists who contributed their share to the performance with great professionalism.«