Being don Quichotte / DFKH 2020

AUTHORS Matija Solce and Cervantes
DIRECTORS Vida Cerkvenik Bren and Matija Solce
PUPPET Mitja Ritmanič
SCENOGRAPHY, MUSIC Matija Solce
PERFORMED BY Filip Šebšajevič, Matija Solce
COPRODUCTION MCLU Koper and Teatro Matita

TWO-MEN ONE-PUPPET SHOW
Length of the performance: 60 mins

Object theatre show for two actors, one marionette, a table and a bunch of nonsense objects. Based on a Cervantes´s novel, the visual poetics of Švankmajer and some facts from a puppeteer’s everyday life, the show “Being Don Quixote” confronts past and present, the individual and the society, the puppeteer and his puppet, the puppets and objects. The tragicomedy is starting with a poor puppeteer who lives without stage, without lights and has to make his way through life with only one marionette. Interfered by the manager which only wants to build a commercial hit, the simple traditional puppet show escalates into physical theatre, commedia dell’arte and surrealistic scenes in which the stage spreads all over the place and the audience becomes actively involved. And after the puppet cuts her strings off, after the puppeteer loses his job, after the public leaves the disastrous show… the new ideas start growing again.

Teatro Matita

Matija Solce (1981) is a Slovenian musician, puppeteer, actor and director as well as puppetry professor, festival organiser and activist. He finished his doctoral studies at the Department of Alternative and Puppet Theatre (DAMU) on the theme of “The musical perspective of puppet theatre”. In his works he closely connects music and theatre and therefore his concerts often turn into interactive theatre performances or his puppet shows become musical compositions. With his accordion and suitcase full of puppets he travelled the globe, experiencing venues as extreme as prisons, ashrams, people's bedrooms or big halls of international festivals. So far he was awarded over 20 times.

He established Teatro Matita in 2002 after completing his studies at Bruno Leone’s traditional Italian hand puppet school in Naples (Italy). His first shows E Beh? (Pulcinella, 2002) and Little Night Tales (2003) proved to be great successes and were subsequently presented at a range of international festivals around the globe. In his latest performances, Matija is experimenting with basing object theatre shows on musical principles.