Have yourself a merry little puppet

What a weekend! Our christmas show, Sonate for Lulu was part of the pre-christmas fever in the Ghent's shopping mall Zuid. I was affraid, that there might not be enough childern, because by this time the parents go shop alone. But no worries!! The rainy weekend was just inviting for some indoor activities, and surely many parents appreciated our show, to entertain the kids, while still getting the last Santa's secrets ;)

With the most beautiful snowy decoration of the shopping center, our show, was just like in a winterwonderland.

And now christmas can start for us too ;) 

The 1900 catharsis

     Last week, on a foggy friday evening we discovered an interesting cultural place, offering plenty of remarkable events. Bij de vieze Gasten is a very nice theater place a bit out of the center of town. The people of Ghent probably know it very well, for us it was new.

     We went to see the show of Utlima Thule, one of the best known belgian puppet theatres which is performing for young and adult audience. 
     The production 1900, which we went to see, is inspired by Alessandro Baricco's novel The legend of 1900. 1900 is a pianist, who was found as a new born baby in a box of lemons on an american cruiseship. He becomes a pianist in the boat orchestra and he is an extraordinary player, who is getting to know the world by seeing all the different people during the cruises. 1900 would never in his life leave the boat. 
     We follow his story through the narration of his friend, who is a trumpetist that plays in the boat orchestra. All characters are performed by the two actors Hans Van Cauwenberghe and  Filip Peeters, who is also the designer of the puppets.
     The cozy setting of the stage, good text and good puppet manipulation with gentle humor made this experience one of my personal highlights of the belgian season. 

Mila and the puppets

Mila, as any other cat, loves fish! She keeps constantly harassing those which we have in our aquarium. When she sees the puppet goldfish Gaga, she goes crazy. Yes, even animals believe in puppet theatre! It is quite a paradox, that Gaga's best friend is a cat, who learns to breathe under water, to be able to play with her. In the real world, our real cat would mainly bite her head off... Well, that's why we have fairy tales:) 

Popoty is ready to surprise little children tomorrow in one library. I'm looking forward and I'm glad that Gaga survived the rehearsal!