The Rite of Spring

Première: 21. 3. 2019, Lutkovno gledališče Ljubljana
Running time 45 minutes. No interval.

Director Matjaž Farič
Composer Igor Stravinski
Visual designer Barbara Stupica
Dramaturgs Staša Prah, Nika Švab
Lighting designer Andrej Hajdinjak
Video animator Jure Lavrin
Stage manager and sound designer Luka Bernetič
Lighting designer Kristjan Vidner
Set technician Klemen Sašek

Puppets, set and costume made by Zoran Srdić, Iztok Bobić, Polona Černe, Zala Kalan, Sandra Birjukov, Marjeta Valjavec, Hana Juta Kozar, Michelle Wren, Špela Ulaga, Zlatko Djogić, Lara Mastnak, Mark Nikolič, Ana Johana Scholten, Rok Hrovatin, Anja Vasiljević, Petra Koželj, Eva Trampuš, Katarina Tadina, Helene Koch, Uroš Mehle s. p., Vladson

Cast 
Voranc Boh, Jan Bučar, Lovro Finžgar, Klemen Janežič as guest, Iztok Lužar, Matevž Müller, Dušan Teropšič as guest

Nature calls for victims. The community organises sacrifice. The victim is a naively clean and uncompromisingly committed individual who is ready to dance to death for the welfare of the community. Sacrifice is often associated with manipulation. The puppet too is many times a metaphor for manipulation. Blending within this are the two fragments of reflection that lead to the staging of The Rite of Springwith the puppets. It is about the challenge of movement, including the understanding of movement as a metaphor for survival. It is about the question of how much life we are able to breathe into something that we are soon going to sacrifice.

This puppet ballet was conceived to the music by Russian composer Igor Stravinsky who composed one of the most controversial musical pieces in the history of musical art in the beginning of the 20^th century. Today, it seems almost unbelievable that this highly popular and esteemed composition was considered as scandalous at its world premiere, that the choreography, conceived by Vaclav Nijinsky, was regarded as catastrophic, and that the music itself was misunderstood.