Subotica Becomes Children's Theater Capital for Six Days
Thirteen shows from ten countries, from China to Wales, arrive in Subotica from September 20 to 25 for the 33rd children's theater festival.
For six days in September, from the 20th to the 25th, Subotica once again fills with languages a child does not need to learn to understand: movement, music, shadow, puppet. The 33rd edition of the International Children’s Theater Festival Subotica arrives with a program of 13 shows from ten countries across Europe and Asia, and by that count alone it is one of the busiest weeks this city has hosted.
The organizer, as in previous years, is Open University Subotica, and the program was put together by selector Dr. Marijana Prpa Fink. Her choices do not hide their ambition: from Chinese shadow theater to a Welsh production built out of leaves and twigs, the range of techniques on display is wider than one might expect from a children’s festival. Speaking ahead of the opening, she explained what shaped the selection:
“This year’s festival was created in the spirit of high standards for creators of stage expression, accessible stage language for children and young people, and diversity of stage elements, both in acting and in puppetry. Thirteen shows from ten countries across Europe and Asia will make six days in September an unrepeatable experience for children and young people in Subotica. From stories about friendship and growing up, through heroes who discover strange new worlds, to new technologies that are now part of life, and of growing up, the 33rd International Children’s Theater Festival Subotica, like every edition before it, brings new insights and a sensory experience of the finest theatrical expression. Top performers from China, the United Kingdom/Wales, Poland, Spain, Italy, Bulgaria, Hungary, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina/Republika Srpska, and Serbia will bring the spirit of art as mutual understanding and a language everyone knows.”
Behind that statement stands a lineup that confirms this is a real program rather than a declaration. Here is the full schedule:
- Serbia: “Alice’s Dreams” (Kragujevac Theater for Children and Youth, directed by Luana Gramenje), “The Magic Flute” (Novi Sad Youth Theater, directed by Renata Karola Gatika), and “Butterflies in Love” (Subotica Children’s Theater, written by Amela Vucenovic, using the traditional Chinese shadow theater technique)
- Republika Srpska: “The Forgotten Story” (Children’s Theater of Republika Srpska, directed by Andrej Boka)
- Croatia: “Star and Dark,” a play about fear of the dark
- Bulgaria: “Aladdin’s Magic Lamp” (Ruse State Puppet Theater, directed by Todor Valov)
- Hungary: “The Carrot’s Tale” (Bobita Theater, written and directed by Atila Sabo)
- Italy: “Felicia” (Quintoequilibrio)
- Poland: “Ojoj: A Big Story About a Little Line” (Pinokio Theater from Lodz, directed by Aleksandra Pejc, performed without spoken words)
- Spain: “The Immigrant,” a puppet tragicomedy (Teatro Firulete, written by Markos Vilela)
- Wales: “Where the Leaves Rustle,” an interactive show built from natural materials
- China: “Everything Changes” (Shanghai Children’s Art Theater) and “Fantastic Dreams of Mountains and Seas” (a drama troupe from Hangzhou, written by Miao Zhao)
Despite the breadth of that list, the festival remains at its core a puppet festival: most of the titles reach for a puppet, a shadow, or an object rather than for spoken text, and that is no accident but a line this Subotica event has built for decades. Earlier achievements confirm as much: the festival received the Vuk Award, Serbia’s highest cultural honor, in 2005, and in 2009 alone it picked up both the Pro Urbe award for its contribution to Subotica and the international “Grozdanin kikot” award for developing drama education, given out by the IDEA center in Mostar. The 33rd edition, in other words, did not appear out of nowhere. It continues a run that few other cities in the region have kept going without a break.
What makes this program worth noting is not only its geographic reach, ten countries on a single bill is no small feat for a city the size of Subotica, but the fact that none of those countries is there just to fill out the poster. Chinese shadow theater, a Welsh production made of branches, and a Hungarian puppet miniature do not share an audience by chance. They share it because each, in its own way, is solving the same problem: how to speak a language a child understands before it has learned a single rule of theater.
