Eugène Ionesco’s stories on the puppet theater scene

The Rijeka City Puppet Theater has performed several puppet shows during the course of its institutional activity since 1960, based on works from the oeuvre of French literature and art. In addition to presenting these plays, this paper gives particular attention to the play All About Jacquelines, a homage to Eugène Ionesco (2004), performed as an interplay between actresses and puppets, based on Stories for Children Under Three Years of Age, written by Eugène Ionesco for his thirty-three-month-old daughter Marie-France. The play features some intertextual links to Ionesco’s dramatic oeuvre, as well as intermedial links to the paintings of the Belgian surrealist painter René Magritte, as well as to the music of the French composer Eric Satie. The peculiarity of performing All About Jacquelines, a homage to Eugène Ionesco, makes the breakthrough of this Theater beyond the established experience of puppet theater as an art form intended primarily for children’s audiences

Gradsko kazalište lutaka u Rijeci i hrvatska lutkarska scena : (1960. - 2004.)

Doktorskim radom Gradsko kazalište lutaka u Rijeci i hrvatska lutkarska scena (1960.–2004.) predstavljena je djelatnost kao i doprinos Gradskog kazališta lutaka u Rijeci suvremenom hrvatskom lutkarstvu tijekom druge polovice dvadesetog stoljeća. Rad je strukturiran u obliku poglavlja u kojima je, nakon pregleda literature o Gradskom kazalištu lutaka u Rijeci i o njegovu osnivanju, kronološki, od početaka djelovanja krajem 50-ih godina 20. stoljeća do 2004. godine predstavljena djelatnost ovog kazališta usporedno s pregledom djelatnosti lutkarskih kazališta u Splitu, Zagrebu, Zadru i Osijeku u istim vremenskim periodima. Uz mnoge iznimne umjetničke dosege riječkih lutkara, u povijesti hrvatskog lutkarstva druge polovice 20. stoljeća ostat će zapamćena predstava Muzičke minijature, izvedena 1966. godine uz glazbu Liszta, Debussyja i Musorgskoga, u režiji Berislava Brajkovića, sa scenografijom i lutkama Ladislava Šošterića i uz primjenu, tada nove na hrvatskoj lutkarskoj sceni, luminiscentne varijante crnog teatra. Od svojeg osnivanja do danas Gradsko kazalište lutaka u Rijeci nastavlja obnašati svoju ulogu: biti kazalište namijenjeno najmlađoj publici, ali i istraživati bezbrojne mogućnosti scenskog izraza što ih pruža lutkarska umjetnost.Doctoral dissertation with the title City Puppet theatre in Rijeka and the Croatian puppetry scene (1960.–2004.) wants to show the activity and the contribution of City Puppet theatre in Rijeka to the contemporary Croatian puppetry during second half of 20th century. The dissertation is structured in chapters. After the review of literature about the City Puppet theatre in Rijeka and its formal constitution, in chronological orders are described the activities of the theatre, from the beginnings in the late fifties up until the year 2004. by comparing it with the activities of other Croatian puppet theatres in Split, Zagreb, Zadar and Osijek in the same period. Between many exceptional artistic results, it is the performance of The Musical miniatures that was performed in 1966. with the music of Liszt, Debussy and Musorgski, directed by Berislav Brajković and with the puppets created by Ladislav Šošterić that stays remembered in the history of Croatian puppetry. It was for the wery first time that the luminescent version of black theatre was used on one of Croatian puppet stages at all. From its constitution up until today the City Puppet theatre in Rijeka continues to fulfil its mission: to be the theatre for the youngest audience and in the same time to explore the countless possibilities of theatrical expression that offers the art of puppetry