Under the Stars at International Children's Festival

The International Children's Festival is set to unfold in all its colour and pageantry during the last week of May.

Making its debut in St. Albert is L'Illusion Théâtre de Marionette, Montreal's leading theatrical troupe specializing in puppetry. From May 26 to May 30, it will present Under the Stars, a Hansel and Gretel adaptation from the Brothers Grimm fairy tale.

“We stay close to the original version. But it's something a little darker. At the beginning of our creation, we worked with kids and we found kids liked to be scared. This version plays on something fun, but it is a bit scary,” says co-artistic director Sabrina Baran.

Her mother Claire Voisard and Czech father Petr Baran founded the company 35 years ago. Over the decades, it has chalked up 35 puppet shows to its name and a long history of touring – something Baran considers the lifeblood of her troupe.

“It's very important for artists to present work everywhere. It's very rich for us to exchange ideas with other artists and have children from other places maybe react differently from children in Montreal. It is important for our creativity.”

Under the Stars debuted in 2010 and has played to audiences across North America. It was an instant hit.

The core company numbers five with up to 20 additional contract artists hired for any given show. For each show, Baran hires a different puppet maker depending on the director's vision.

Czech puppet maker Robert Smolik, an acquaintance of Petr Baran, was the ideal candidate to create Under the Stars.

Smolik's rough-hewn wood rod puppets retain every mark of the chisel, yet are an extraordinarily eloquent art form that continues a 400-year old Czech tradition.

“They have very expressive faces. We have two types. We have big ones, about the size of a two- or three-year-old child and small replicas we use to bring the impression of two kids lost in a dark forest. We want to have all the emotion of kids lost in the forest.”

In addition, to Hansel and Gretel there are mother and father puppets, and the appearance of a wicked witch as well as strange creatures that magically appear in the dark of the forest night.

“For kids, what makes the show is because we focus on the strength of two kids. We put kids up front. It makes them understand even kids are strong. They are a brother and sister that stick together and can get out of the forest by helping each other. It's a story of strength. Kids love to see strength.”

Whatever design the puppetry troupe chooses, the main thrust is to prompt the audience into further using their imagination.

“We also show that they can have fun and enjoy life even if it is not OK. They are two children living next to a forest and at one point they enjoy being in the forest. But we also explore fear and how our imagination makes fear bigger than what it is. And if we try to understand what goes on, things get less scary.”

For more information visit illusiontheatre.com.