ABOUT THE PLAY
AUTHOR TEAM
Director: Robert Waltl
Scenography and Puppets: Dejan Kljun
Music: Uroš Rakovec
Coreography: Natalija Manojlović
ACTORS
Sergio Radoš – Hedgy the Hedgehog
Sabina Halilović – The Fox
Igor Vidačković – The Wolf and The Bunny
Nedžad Maksumić – The Bear
Diana Ondelj-Maksumić and Nermina Denjo – The Wild Boar
PLAY REVIEW
Robert Waltl created his own world of images of the wonders that were freed from the textual template of Ćopić’s story and became independent in its own authenticity of experiencing nature. It more so transformed into its own philosophy of relations with the original spaces of human habitat, which managed to carry Ćopić’s intent – the attachment to the birth place. Waltl’s philosophy is here crystallized in the colored tones that he uses to shape his own scenic world. The colors of costumes, worn by his and Ćopić’s heroes, are the colors of a mild approach to the ripeness of the early fall. It is Ćopić’s pantheistic philosophy, but given in a more refined style of a contemporary European intellectual. Precisely this refinement is felt in the intensity of the colors where colors no longer serve to attribute the real world, but represent a thought category through which Waltl sees the primal world of Ćopić’s fantasy game. Waltl does not distance himself from Ćopić, he does not let him down, but only intensifies those components that appear as references to his own understanding of the natural world. Ćopić and Waltl co-create a unique theme, but each of them has its own autonomous field of understanding of this “unique theme”.
The puppet realization by Dejan Kljun was extraordinary; he was also the constructor of the stage where the action took place. The dimensions of the puppets were superior to the stage space, and this was an addition to their monumentality and scenic comprehension. They were proportional to their animators, which contributed to the playfulness of puppets in such a formulated space.
Actors of the play, the six young and enthusiastic members of the Puppet Theater Mostar, are genuinely dedicated to what they chose as their life commitment – to be actors of this kind of theater, predisposed to accepting directorial demands and translating them into an artistic act. With their play, they give plasticity to stage scenes and live pictures that cross the ramp and pour into audience in wide streams. The ensemble has exhibited yet another aspect of its creative possibilities – the evident power of musical interpretation as the first lines of “The Hedgehog’s House” are considered as the choir singing.
The “drama“ starts with a letter by which Lisica invites Hedgy the Hedgehog to a feast. Hedgy gladly responds, and with these scenes Ćopić translated his pantheism into a plot, into the course of events, and an imagined stream of forest life. The Fox gets intrigued by what Hedgy’s house must be like when he longs for it so much. Curious as she is, she goes to check it out. On her nighttime trip, she also meets other actors: The Wolf, The Bear and the Wild Boar, who join the Fox’s hike. This march is the main thematic part of the play, and the main shares in which the actors of the performance express their creative power.
Waltl shaped the play as a form of a collective play, but at the same time he sought for elements that would enable actors to show their creative individuality by giving a full “character” to each role by building on the elements that Ćopić incorporated into them.
Everything in this play is at an enviable creative height: the painted factor, the articulation of the stage space, the music on which the architecture of the performance is based as well as the acting of the actors. This performance, according to its imaginative formulations, is intended for the young audience, but it can satisfy all those who can still find enough freshness in life and enjoy Hedgy’s awe-inspiring love for his home.
This play of the Puppet Theater Mostar marks the begining of the celebration of the 55th Jubilee Anniversary of existance of this Mostarian theater house.
Vojislav Vujanović
