EFFE Laureate - Bábkarská Bystrica Tour Double Impulse
The moderately large town of Banska Bystrica is cradled by mountains in the centre of Slovakia. It has modest but solid cultural infrastructure of an opera house and dance company but much of the old industry has failed and jobs are scarce. The relative poverty extends into the agricultural towns and villages in the valleys, where it has fuelled angry nationalism and political intolerance. The city is at the centre of a central European region that amply demonstrates the fortunes of Slovakia itself in recent decades – ten years of abject misery followed by eight years of catching-up, succeeded by ten years of stagnant austerity.
The moderately large town of Banska Bystrica is cradled by mountains in the centre of Slovakia. It has modest but solid cultural infrastructure of an opera house and dance company but much of the old industry has failed and jobs are scarce. The relative poverty extends into the agricultural towns and villages in the valleys, where it has fuelled angry nationalism and political intolerance. The city is at the centre of a central European region that amply demonstrates the fortunes of Slovakia itself in recent decades – ten years of abject misery followed by eight years of catching-up, succeeded by ten years of stagnant austerity.
One constant through the whole period has been the biennial festival of puppet theatre. The theatre itself is a continuous presence in the town but the festival brings a rich panoply of international productions and last year it decided it had to do something to address the isolation of the surrounding communities. The Babkarska Bystrica tour transferred its work out into the countryside, taking performers from all over the world into six small towns and villages.
Iveta Skripkova, its Director, draws my attention to the subtitle of the festival – Impulse – which to her conjures up a litany of key words: inspiration, imagination, innovation. “We try to use our work to help people overcome limits, whether they be age, social condition or profession. We wanted to reach out to those voters who, in desperation, had elected the far right.” So, while much of the puppetry is connected to children – important as a way of accessing new and suspicious communities – she is just as keen to engage with teenagers and adults. “We wanted to show them another way, something from international life, ask complicated questions and change minds but do it by touching hearts.”
Puppetry is different from normal theatre, she says, and less bound by language and convention. “It includes all the arts – even shadows. It's a very contemporary medium. Life is not monochrome and our puppetry is all colour.”
Location: Banska Bystrica, Slovakia
Director: Iveta Skripkova
Dates: 2018/09/24 – 2018/10/08
Art Disciplines: Puppetry, Theatre, Dance
Find out more about the festivals on their EFFE Profile and the Bábkarská Bystrica Festival website.
