POHÁDKA DO DLANĚ / THE FAIRYTALE FROM THE PALM

Iva Peřinová

Cast: 5 players

A poetic comedy for children about the four seasons. It is divided into four scenes: How Spring Wept for Winter; How Summer made Spring Angry; How Autumn made Winter Sad; How Winter Fought with All His Strength. The personified seasons start up their fight for control before an astonished person who has fallen asleep in his room. A coloured shadow play goes on outside his window during their conflicts. Winter leaves behind two snowflakes for Spring. Outside the window these two snowflakes change into animated drops of water, journey below the earth, the sea and sky, turn into vapour and hail. Their transformations and wanderings are brought nearer by a fairytale magnifying glass in the form of short stories. The man in the room protests against these visitors but is nevertheless drawn into this cycle against his will, becomes a bush which buds, flowers, matures and fades. At the end a snowflake is caught in his hand – the theme for the continuation of an unending serial.

If I read and compare all the motifs, i f I find their mutual connections, then I cannot shake off the impression that it is humility and a humble wonder before the wisdom of nature, before the miraculous nature of its doings, which is decisive here. (Jan Císař: Komentář dramaturga, Loutkář, 2. 3. 1992)

  The play is available also in English, Slovenian, Hungarian and Croatian translation.