Ida the Hen and Pilat the Squirrel (5+)

«In a dark forest a hen, no longer capable of laying eggs, meets a squirrel who has a speech impediment. The two outsiders are happy to have each other, because there are three wolves in the forest.»

One day, Ida the hen leaves her pen. Ida can no longer lay eggs and feels useless. Soon she gets lost in the dark forest. She meets a squirrel named Pilat. Pilat cannot say the letter R correctly. A wonderful friendship develops between the odd couple: Ida, in her cackling and dancing way, dreams of being a famous actress. Pilat however is a real loudmouth, boasting about his courage in many reckless adventures. Ida is not so sure if she can believe everything he brags about. Is it important at all? There are three hungry wolves in the forest and being afraid of them makes them bond together. This is a story about the dreams of two outcasts, about being different and about social marginalization.

Ida the Hen and Pilat the Squirrel is Theater Bagat’s newest production. Bagat was founded by Roman Weishaupt and wants to cultivate theater for a young audience and families. Bagat encourages and engages theater people in the Rhaeto Romanic part of Switzerland to work and play in their mother tongue. Those productions are also translated into German.

© Ingo Höhn

© Ingo Höhn

© Ingo Höhn

© Ingo Höhn

© Ingo Höhn

The Word Factory (5+)

«Paul and Oscar love Marie, but they cannot tell her, because every word spoken in the land of the Word Factory costs money, money they do not have. Will wordless adoration be all there is for them?»

It is Visitor’s Day at the Word Factory. Paul, Oscar and Marie are slaving away over their instruments. With a double bass, drums and piano they create letters and words. They are strictly controlled by their rich boss. Words start sounding and fading away, break up and are repaired. One word may become dangerous, another one is put in a museum. The longest word is found and wrapped up. In the land of the Word Factory, using words is only possible if you buy them, and that costs money. Paul, Oscar and Marie cannot afford those expensive words. Yet Paul and Oscar would have a lot to say: they have both fallen in love with Marie. Fortunately, it is not only in words that feelings can be expressed.

The equipe wiss theater was founded by the singer Isa Wiss. The picture book «The Great Word Factory» has remained with her for a long time. In her work as a singer she devotes herself to non-conforming sounds. The wiss team wants to open children’s ears to New Music, by expanding play techniques and through improvisation. In this play the children sit right in the center, in the middle of the Word Factory.

© Sascha Rijkeboer

© Sascha Rijkeboer

© Sascha Rijkeboer

© Sascha Rijkeboer

No Elephants Today (6+)

«Elephants are everywhere, you just have to look out for them and then you’ll start seeing them. A search for the big grey pachyderms, following their traces and their spirit.»

Here a slowly swinging movement of an arm, there a long, grey trunk , there a rough surface of a wall and here a dancer who lovingly knocks off his dance partner. Team Tartar guides our perception of elephants in their dance and theatre production. There are always plenty of elephants, we just don’t see them. Together with the audience, the search for the thick greyskins begins. First on stage, then in our surroundings. Is that a tree trunk or an elephant’s leg? Is that really a power cable or is it an elephant’s trunk? Team Tartar shows the elephants dancing, trotting and lying around. The hidden grey giants suddenly become visible, because at some point the audience starts to see the elephant all by itself.

Team Tartar develops dance and theater productions for young audiences. It was founded in autumn 2017 by Eva Maria Küpfer (choreographer) and Frederike Dengler (theater pedagogue). Team Tartar focuses on the contemporary communication of movement and stories. The main focus here is on discovering, or rediscovering, real and imaginary spaces, and on contemplating together with children.

© Tanja Dorendorf / T+T Fotografie

© Tanja Dorendorf / T+T Fotografie

© Tanja Dorendorf / T+T Fotografie

© Tanja Dorendorf / T+T Fotografie

A Schocolate Life (6+) I Coproduction

«Justice is quite complicated, especially when it comes to something as fine as chocolate. Three clownlike performers try their best and almost overlook the simplest solution.»

Three clownlike performers struggle to share a piece of chocolate fairly among themselves. However, things are not as easy as they seem, because the three of them have to overcome a few challenges. Their different ideas of justice, the task of inventing fair rules and, above all, their own desire for more and more chocolate. The three protagonists playfully juggle the big question of justice without realizing that they are moving further and further away from the simple solution to the problem: How about simply dividing the chocolate into three pieces of equal size? What is really fair? Why is it sometimes so difficult to be fair? Why don’t those who have too much give so that everyone has enough? So that everyone can be on the «chocolate side of life»?

Theater Fallalpha was founded in Zurich in 1998. The group sees itself as a family troupe, and it produces professional theater for children from 3 to 13 years. The plays are mainly developed during rehearsals. Research and improvisation phases last several weeks, the material is created, and it then serves as the basis for the theater script and production.

© Stephan Zbinden

Meet you at Noah’s Ark at Eight (6+) I Coproduction I Premiere

«Three penguins are in trouble: The Flood is coming and they have only two tickets for Noah’s Ark. But the three are clever and they are there for each other»

There’s not much going on in Antarctica. Everything is always white, it is always cold. So the three penguins start an argument every now and then, just for a change of pace. When a dove brings the three penguins two tickets for Noah’s Ark, so that they can save themselves from the Flood, this challenges the penguins. Squabbling or not, it quickly becomes clear: penguins don’t let each other down. Friends might argue with each other, fight each other, get insulted – but friends always end up other singing together. Thus begins a clever adventure in which it becomes clear that Noah sees badly, giraffes get seasick and God likes to eat cheesecake. The three actors tell the story using puppets, set design, songs, light, looped sounds and everything else they can get their hands on.

The collective E0B0FF from St.Gallen is an association of young artists who develop theater and dance productions in different constellations. The collective was founded in 2011 by Dominique Enz, Franziska Ryser and Sebastian Ryser. «An der Arche um acht/See you at Noah’s Ark at Eight» is a co-production with «jungspund». The collective E0B0FF cooperates in this production with the FigurenTheater St.Gallen.

© Luis Eduardo Martínez

Eureka! Who invented it? (8+) I Coproduction I Premiere

«What have our ingenious inventions brought us? In rapid succession two inventors experience how the world has become what it is through discoveries and inventions and what it can still become.»

Inventors are at work in Heureka! A full-time professional spoiled by success, a dreamy fantasist and an as-yet unrecognised inventor who is perhaps on the verge of a groundbreaking breakthrough. But how do inventions actually come about and what consequences do they have for our lives? What drives us to want to invent anything at all? And what does it take to produce something new? Happiness, chance or even something like the Great Stench of London in 1858?
In their search for answers, the three inventors are amazed to discover that the best inventions were often made by women. They experience in a historical flashback who invented what and why. In the process, they themselves are inspired to make new inventions and come up with new creations they never intended. They empty stuff, stumble, pluck gut strings, juggle with bones and press the wrong keys until there are no more stones on top of each other–until the invention itself has been reinvented.
The play «Heureka! Who invented it?» lives from the bizarreness and kindness of its characters, a stage set with love and with details. It is full of highly musical slapstick, with a amazingly light learning effect!

Kolypan is a theatrical invention by Fabienne Hadorn and Gustavo Nanez. The theater was founded in 2000 and since then has been working together with a wide variety of artists in the independent theater scene. In 2019 Kolypan was the first children’s theater group to receive the three-year artist sponsorship from the City of Zurich Culture.

© Nelly Rodriguez

© Nelly Rodriguez

© Nelly Rodriguez

© Nelly Rodriguez

© Nelly Rodriguez

Forever (8+) I Festival Opening

«What if we were all immortal? Five dancers show death as an endless process of trial and error. Sometimes funny, sometimes poetic, but also very bloody, including a massacre.»

What if we all lived forever? Five dancers stage the desire for immortality. They die, but awaken to a new life. Nothing is final. Once they are killed by a snake bite, then by a tsunami and finally by the atomic bomb. The dancers show death as an endless process of trial and error. Sometimes funny, sometimes poetic, but also very bloody, including a massacre. The knowledge and fantasies of children form the basis for the performance. How do children think about life and death? About immortality? Can one deal with this topic in a playful way? Or does it remain a taboo? Tabea Martin collected material from children between the ages of 8 and 12 and danced with it.

Forever is the second part of a trilogy that Tabea Martin has developed on the subject of transience. The first part dealt with the transience of one’s own body, the third part will deal with the death of the Other. Tabea Martin studied Modern Dance at the Amsterdam University of the Arts and graduated in 2002. Four years later she completed her second degree in choreography at the Rotterdamse Dansacademie.

© Guy Perrenoud

© Guy Perrenoud

The True Story about Rain and Storm (10+)

«Ruth is different: She loves words and prime numbers. If she didn’t have her dog, she would be very lonely. When he disappears, her world collapses. But then she sets off on a journey.»

Ruth knows all too well the question «Why can’t you be like all the other kids?». Everyone keeps asking her this, even her father. Ruth plays with words, is enthusiastic about prime numbers and creates lists, all things that other children don’t do. Ruth is alone with her passions.
But fortunately there is Rain, Ruth’s dog, and Uncle Weldon, who understands her. One night a storm sweeps over the land and Rain disappears. Ruth is desperate. Why did her father let her dog out? Ruth’s world has been turned upside down, but not for long. Because she knows what to do: all alone she goes on a search. When she finds Rain, she makes a decision. This is a story about otherness, loneliness and security, about justice and letting go.

La Grenouille – a Theatre Center for Young Audiences – was founded 34 years ago in Biel/Bienne by Charlotte Huldi and Arthur Barrata. La Grenouille has been based in Biel for 30 years and it produces plays for a young audience. Since the beginning till today all productions are mounted bilingually. The ensemble has received several awards, most recently the Art Prize of the Canton of Berne in 2017.

© Sepp de Vries

© Sepp de Vries

© Sepp de Vries

Auerhaus (14+)

«Frieder wanted to kill himself. His friends move with him to the Auerhaus and try to revive his spirits. Who am I? What do I want? The Auerhaus becomes a fortress against the onslaught of the world»

Frieder has attempted suicide. After a stay in a psychiatric clinic, he does not want to return to his home. He moves into the Auerhaus, his grandfather’s empty house with his best friend Höppner, his friend Vera the wild one, the arsonist Pauline and the gay, weed smoking Harry. The four friends do everything they can to reawaken Frieder’s spirits. In the Auerhaus – the title is based on the catchy tune of the band Madness’s «Our House, in the Middle of the Street» – the five friends experience a short, wild year of freedom, a year full of exuberance, of embracing the world, of first sex, of melancholy and of several collapses. This story about growing up is told with relish and at a fast pace.

The LAB Junges Theater Zürich gave the first Swiss stage performance of the celebrated young adult novel by Bov Bjerg. The LAB Junges Theater Zürich is a network of theater professionals that realizes theater projects with young people aged 14 to 24. LAB stands for TheaterLABor. It creates a time for content and space to play, spinning thoughts, improvisation, using physical strength and intensive reflection throughout the ensemble.

© junges theater basel

© junges theater basel

© junges theater basel

Pool Position (14+)

«After their catastrophic birthday party Linus and his sister Cora want to do something useful in Italy and save refugees. But there is also young Messi and soon the question of meaning again arises, this time in a different form.»

Linus had a hell of a party for his 18th birthday, but the awakening afterwards is pure horror: the pool is devastated, the Steinway piano has been vomited on all over. Now it’s time to run away. Linus’ sister Cora encourages Linus to do just that. Cora has long wanted to get out of her privileged life. She convinces Linus to go to Sicily with her. Staying at the family’s holiday home, the two decide to help save refugees. But Linus has his doubts: What about the responsibility this entails? Is the will to help actually commitment, or just plain selfishness? When the two meet the charismatic Messi, the question of the meaning of life again arises, this time in a different way, because Messi can dance and kiss passionately.
Pool Position is a coming-of-age journey, a play about rich kids and their struggle to answer the big questions in life that we keep asking ourselves again and again, while at the same time repressing them.

Lucien Haug from Basel wrote the story especially for the actors and actresses of the young theatre basel. Since 1977, the young theater basel has been mounting productions for a young audience with alternating ensembles of professionals and amateurs. «Pool Position» is a play in Swiss dialect.

© Jos Schmid

© Jos Schmid

© Jos Schmid

© Jos Schmid

© Jos Schmid

© Jos Schmid

© Jos Schmid

Dreams of a Summer Night (15+)

«Balmy is the night, and feelings are boiling. Four lovers are looking for each other, as a wild forest spirit appears that makes the confusion even more baffling with his magic powers.»

In the middle of a summer night: four young people are in love for the first time and at the same time desperate. Hermia loves Lysander, but her father wants her to marry Demetrius. Helena, Hermia’s best friend, has already fallen in love with Demetrius. Demetrius, on the other hand, is crazy about Hermia. When Lysander and Hermia flee into the forest to escape Hermia’s father, Demetrius and Helena start to persecute them. In this mid summer night everyone dreams of their own bliss of love. And as if this wasn’t complicated enough, the lovers meet Puck in the forest, who enjoys using his magic powers to create even more confusion. Hormones are booming and feelings are boiling over. It remains to be seen, who loves whom in the end.

Dutch author and director Theo Fransz has been working very successfully in German-speaking countries since 2001, especially for young audiences. He has received several awards for his productions. Fransz has written an adaptation of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream for the Theater St.Gallen, and he has succeeded in simplifying the language, which makes it easier for young people to gain access to this still-relevant play.