During the ‘Fairy Tales of the Future’ programme in Novi Sad and surroundings from 1 until 15 May, the fairy-tale worlds, brought to us by giant theatre puppets, plays, children’s operas, concerts and exhibitions, literary and other magical journeys designed for the most creative among us, children and young people, will intertwine. The programme will take place at nine locations – the Serbian National Theatre, the Youth Theatre and the Novi Sad Theatre, institutions with long and rich traditions, five interlinked cultural stations, which, during the year of the European Capital of Culture title, show their great potential for the cultural development of the city. The programme will also take place in public spaces, streets and squares, in the heart of Novi Sad and surrounding places. Novi Sad thus becomes a perfect mise-en-scène for fairy tales, where more than 200 artists from 13 countries will tell many old and new stories created by distinguished local and European authors, and children themselves, at workshops, through learning and playing.
Gulliver as An Harbinger of Three Theatre Festivals
The spectacle ‘Gulliver’s Travels’, a classic by Jonathan Swift directed by Kokan Mladenović, with giant five-metre puppets and actors of the Youth Theatre, will take the audience into a theatrical magic to remember on 7 May. Four points, where four most interesting Gulliver’s adventures will be performed, will be set up in the centre of Novi Sad. The performance will be accompanied by moving scenography and live music (through Dunavska Street and passage no. 13, across the Republic Square and Fish Market, all the way to the Dunavski Park), together with the audience and thus will become an integral part of the spectacle. ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ will revive the public space and introduce the audience to the magical world of the grand guignol puppets, in which actors become puppets.
International theatre festival for children and youth, the ‘Novi Sad Theatre Festival’, produced by the Youth Theatre, will be held from 7 until 15 May. The festival has a competitive character and gathers professional theatres from across the world that promote stage and puppet performances. On the small and large stage of the Youth Theatre and in the Dunavski Park, we will have a chance to see ‘Invisible Lands’ (Finland, 14+), ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’ (Slovenia and Croatia, 6+), ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’ (Montenegro, 7+), ‘Silent Boy’ (Serbia, 6+), ‘Chrono-Dwarves’ (Slovakia, 8+), ‘Coffee Kingdom’ (Croatia, 6+), ’Three Musketeers’ (Czech Republic, 8+), ‘Seven Ravens’ (Bosnia and Herzegovina, 6+), ‘Mahmud’ (Slovenia, 12+), ‘Chaplin’ (Slovakia, 6+), ‘Gerda’s Room’ (Russia, 12+), ‘Playing Up’ (Germany, 6+ and adults), which will be performed twice, ‘Mouse Maus House Haus That Is Puss in Boots’ (5+), ‘Metamorphoses’ (15+).
The puppet festival ‘Do You Believe in Fairy Tales’ will take place in the Rumenka Cultural Station from 7 until 9 May. It is dedicated to pre-school children and combines puppetry and contemporary theatre, music and dance. The opening of the festival will be marked by the performance of the Novi Sad Camerata, which will perform Tchaikovsky’s ‘The Nutcracker’ for string ensemble, after which we will watch the performances ‘Three Fairy Tales in Search of a Reader’, ‘The Princesses with an Attitude’, ‘Eiffel Tower’ and ‘The Two Fake Princes and One Real Pea’.
The first day of the ‘Fairy Tales’ programme in the Barka Cultural Station on 7 May, will start with an all-day event, ‘Duša ište pozorište’, when programmes created during various workshops that were attended by preschool and school children will be performed. The play ‘Blind Spot’, staged by Romanian director Andrei Majeri, will be shown at the Serbian National Theatre on May 7, while on 13,14 and 15 May we will have a chance to see the play ‘Falcon’s Song’, produced by the National Folk Song and Dance Ensemble ‘Kolo’, created in collaboration with prominent director Gábor Mihályi.
Selection for the ‘The Invasion (UPAD)’ Festival or What Have the Young People Chosen for Their Peers
The fourth edition of ‘The Invasion (UPAD)’ theatre festival, launched by the Student Cultural Centre Novi Sad as a partner organisation of the ‘Be SpectACTive’ project’, will be held in Fabrika from 10 until 15 May. The main idea of the ‘The Invasion (UPAD)’ festival is to popularise theatrical art for young people and audience development, while all performances in the programme were chosen by active young spectators. The project gathers 19 partner organisations from 15 European countries. We will have an opportunity to see ‘Tears of St. Lawrence’, ‘A Practical Guide to Superstition’, ‘Root’, ‘Playing Reality’, ‘The Other Map’, which will be performed twice, ‘Babae’, and ‘Hi Everybody’.
The Fairty Tales That Are Sung
We will show that fairy tales cannot necessarily be read through the ‘Europe XXL’ project that brings us five operas for children performed by the ‘Visoko C’ Association of Artists. The operas will be performed in cultural stations from 8 until 15 May: ‘The Magic Flute’ (Svilara Cultural Station), ‘The Ant and the Grasshopper’ (Bukovac Cultural Station), ‘Cinderella’ (Egység Cultural Station), ‘The Goat’s Ears of the Emperor Trojan’ (Barka Cultural Station), ‘Puss in Boots’ (Rumenka Cultural Station).
Furthermore, the ‘Woodland Queen’ opera for children by Franjo Štefanović, directed by Robert Raponja will be held in the Egység Cultural Station on 8 May. The opera will be performed by children, commemorating one hundred years since its first publication.
‘Fairy Tales’ – Background
The Novi Sad Wind Quintet has designed the ‘Ksenija and the Hunter’ music programme, accessible and interesting to children aged five to fourteen. The quintet will perform compositions by the famous Novi Sad composer Aleksandra Vrebalov at the Mladost Cultural Centre in Futog and the Egység Cultural Station in Novi Sad on May 7, at the elementary schools in Kovilj and Kać on May 9, and at the elementary school in Veternik and the culture and arts society in Budisava on May 11.
Tamburitza Orchestra of the Association of Serbs from Romania (Timişoara), Folklore Ensemble ‘Vila’ of the ‘Železničar’ Serbian Culture and Arts Society from Novi Sad and ‘Svetozar Marković’ Culture and Arts Society from Novi Sad, will perform as part of the programme ‘Rogalj’ in Novi Sad on 7 May, in Kać on 8 May and in Kovilj on 14 May. Rogalj (corner) is a gathering place, a place where village youth come together, while the ‘Rogalj’ event offers folk dances and vocal-instrumental songs in a modern way, forgotten children’s dances, as well as the promotion of handicrafts and an exhibition of art and literary works by students.
Until 21 May, every Saturday in the Gallery of Matica Srpska will be dedicated to the music programme for babies and children, while from 7 May to 19 June, there will be an exhibition of children’s works ‘Growing Up in the City of Culture’.
Contemporary Gulliver and Other Magical Travels
The Novi Sad Children’s Cultural Centre and Mountaineering and Skiing Association ‘Železničar’ will open a ‘Literary Trail’, on the day of the Fruška Gora Marathon (8 May). Along the shortest course of the marathon, educational boards with quotes from literary works will be set up, while a programme for children will be organised at the finish line – performances by children’s choirs, a theater play, a workshop on ecology, as well as a programme with animators and circus instructors.
The reading of excerpts from the book of travel essays ‘Along the Danube’ by contemporary Gulliver, the French writer of the younger generation Emanuel Ruben, which talks about his bicycle trip along the Danube, from the coast of the Black Sea to the river’s source in Switzerland, will take place in the Liberty Square (Trg slobode) on 9 May. The forum ‘Literary Sail Along the Danube’ will be held in the Svilara Cultural Station on 10 May and in the Bulevar Books bookstore on 11 May.
The entrance to all programmes that make up the ‘Fairy Tales of the Future’ is free, except for plays that are performed within the ‘Novi Sad Theatre Festival’ and ‘The Invasion (UPAD)’ festival. You can buy tickets for the plays at the box office of the Youth Theatre within the ‘Novi Sad Theatre Festival’. The individual ticket price is RSD 500, while the group ticket price is RSD 350. For pupils and students, admission is free to all performances during ‘The Invasion (UPAD)’ festival, with mandatory beforehand reservation by email to upadfestival@gmail.com. The standard price of the tickets is RSD 500, and they will be available for purchase before the start of the plays at SCC Fabrika.
The ‘Fairy Tales of the Future’ are part of the Future of Europe programme arch, one of the eight programme arches that further develop the programme concept of the European Capital of Culture in 2022.
Photo: Jelena Ivanović
