News - Teatr Lalka

The Puppet Theatre Primer (Elementarz teatru lalek), the latest publication from Teatr Lalka, will be released in December 2018 (in Polish). It is intended for all generations, and especially children. This richly illustrated book is designed to promote broader knowledge of puppet theatre. In an accessible manner, it acquaints readers with puppeteering techniques and traditions. It provides instructions and scenarios allowing readers to stage their own puppet shows at home using simple materials. 

This volume presents the first 70 years of Teatr Lalka, the Polish puppet theatre founded in Uzbekistan in 1945, operating first as the Blue Almonds Marionette Theatre in Samarkand, later in Kraków (1946–1948), and from 1948 to the present day in Warsaw.

To mark the 20th anniversary this December of the death of Jan Wilkowski—director, puppeteer, for many years the artistic director of Teatr Lalka, author of plays for stage and television, and teacher—we would like to share a profile of this distinguished artist. A graduate of Janina Kilian-Stanisławska’s Puppet Theatre School, he debuted in the show Madam Twardowska [Pani Twardowska] in the role of Mephistopheles at the Blue Almonds Marionette Theatre (later renamed Teatr Lalka). From 1952 to 1969 he served as the artistic director of Teatr Lalka. During that period, many of his famous shows would appear, going on to win awards at international festivals, such as Ivan the Great [Wielki Iwan] (1954), Guignol in a Stew [Guignol w tarapatach] (1956), The Enchanted Piano [Zaczarowany fortepian] (1957), Zwyrtała the Fiddler, or How a Highlander Went to Heaven [O Zwyrtale Muzykancie, czyli jak się góral dostał do nieba] (1958), Pietrek the Tiger [Tygrys Pietrek] (1962), and We and the Dwarves [My i krasnoludki] (1967). All of these shows were presented in cooperation with scenographer Adam Kilian. Wilkowski constructed Guignol in a Stew on the principle of a theatre within a theatre, also maintaining the Brechtian convention of epic theatre, with songs commenting on the stage events. Henryk I. Rogacki wrote of Wilkowski’s character of the Parisian puppeteer Jean in that show: “The figure of Jean suddenly assumed the features of Geppetto or the music-box player Papa Carlo, and the Guignol puppet was akin to Pinocchio or Buratino. Of foremost importance was the relation between the puppet and its creator, or rather the creator of its life in the theatre: an extraordinary relation, an intriguing mystery of art and a fascinating riddle for art.” Zwyrtała the Fiddler, “painted on glass” and regarded as “the best show in the history of world puppeteering,” set the direction for development of Polish and European puppet theatre for years to come. Henryk Jurkowski said of the show: “It was the most distinguished presentation by Wilkowski and Kilian. It discovered Highlander folklore for the puppet theatre and restored to the puppets their existence as works of visual art, derived from figurative folk art. It documented a new path for Polish theatre.” In the 1960s and 1970s, Jan Wilkowski created puppet theatre for television, reaching wide audiences with such shows as The Enchanted Steed [Zaklęty rumak] (1966) and Galoshes of Happiness [Kalosze szczęścia] (1967), also with Adam Kilian’s scenography, as well as TV series (Theatre in a Basket [Teatrzyk w koszu], Ula from the First Grade [Ula z I B]). In 1974 he cofounded the Białystok-based Department of Puppet Theatre Arts of the Warsaw State Academy of Drama, where in 1974–1980 he served as dean and lectured in the newly established Faculty of Puppet Theatre Direction (1981–1990).

Teatr Lalka expresses its warm thanks to the Cultural Office of the City of Warsaw, and directors Tomasz Thun-Janowski and Joanna  Szwajcowska, for their kind assistance in creation of the theatre’s new website. 

Theatre posters for current and past productions are available for purchase. More information: (22) 656 69 57, rezerwacje@teatrlalka.pl

The book Adam Kilian. Fascynacje. (Adam Kilian. Fascinations) edited by Teatr Lalka is available for purchase. More information: (22) 656 69 57, rezerwacje@teatrlalka.pl