I.B.Mažuranić: Šuma Striborova
During the 1940's, when the Rječina River that flows through the city marked the border between Italy and Yugoslavia, in the Western part of the town of Rijeka – Fiume a group of puppeteers performed regularly in Italian. The eastern part of the town called Sušak also had its own puppet theater, situated in the main hall of the hotel “Sušak”, and organized occasional performances in Croatian, staging mostly plays written by Viktor Car Emin, whose central character was a boy named Jurić, a character close to the audience, who symbolized the national consciousness.
Rijeka Puppet Theaterwas born after the WWII after the unification of the town, on March 29, 1960. In the beginning, the performances were held at the National Museum, today’s Governor’s Palace. The official opening of the puppet theater’s permanent stage in the Brajda district of the town, where it has been located ever since, was marked by the performance of “Veli Jože” by Vladimir Nazor, on April 23, 1961. The puppet theater was then called “Domino”. Since “Domino” begun its activity at a time when other professional puppet theaters in the country stopped using a screen for their performances, the puppet plays such as “Veli Jože”, “A Jumping Ball” and “Omedeto” were performed by combining live actors and puppets on sticks. In the mid 1960’s Berislav Brajković from Zagreb was appointed the artistic leader of the theater. On the basis of his extensive artistic insights, as well as his knowledge of musical culture and history, he introduced the so-called luminescent technique i.e. sort of “black theater” accompanied by sound and light effects.
Mention should be made of the only puppet opera known so far, “A Little House of Harmony” by Boris Papandopulo, written for this theater and first performed with piano accompaniment in 1965.
The repertoire at the Rijeka’s puppet theater was in those days conceived on two aesthetic levels: texts based on the idiom of Croatian coastline and contemporary puppet plays.
New techniques were explored: black theater in combination with glove-puppets, flat puppets and puppets on sticks, as well as shadow theater.
Rijeka Puppet Theater was the host of the first Croatian Puppeteers Meeting in Opatija in 1969, event that has been taking place biannually ever since under the name of SLUK, mostly in Osijek. During the 1970’s, new directors emerged which contributed to the diversity of expression regarding both puppets and staging. Director Želimir Prijić was the author of the first puppet film entitled “Aska and the Wolf” (1979) with the participation of the puppeteers from Rijeka.
The war in Croatia in 1991 as well as problems with the staff and the repertoire brought Rijeka Puppet Theater to the verge of non-existence and almost led to its closing down. Thanks to the efforts of a dozen enthusiasts and the administration of the City of Rijeka, municipal puppet theater was founded on 28 January, 1993.
Today’s City Puppet Theater Rijeka is equipped with 188 seats and up-to-date scene facilities. In 1995 the Theater was awarded the most important prize of the City of Rijeka for its work. The reconstructed building was reopened in 1996.
City Puppet Theater Rijeka stages on average four new puppet performances a year, mostly for pre-school and school age. Every year it organizes International Revue of Puppet Theaters which brings some of the best European and Croatian puppet creations to the town. The theater itself is present at many domestic and international festivals. Its international reputation was crowned when it was appointed host of UNIMA CONGRESS 2004.