Ein Kinderstück nach Charles Perrault

The narrator greets you in the half-light of a large bedroom. Together, everyone performs the intimate ritual of going to bed. The goodnight story begins. Sounds, noises and smells envelop the body.

The production by Italian theatre group, Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio, is an event. 10 years after its premiere, it still remains one of the most original performances in European children’s theatre. It plays with the acoustic possibilities of the theatre and, unimpressed by the age of modern media, its unshaken confidence in the spectator’s fantasy is enchanting.

The story of Tom Thumb is a part of the cultural richness of European fairytales. This performance is based on the text by Charles Perrault (1628-1703), which also provided the model for the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen. Together with Tom Thumb, whose parents cast him and his brothers out into the forest, we experience the fear of the dark and the ogre. And together, we are ultimately saved by the craftiness of the smallest one.

The Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio was founded in Cesena (near Bologna) in 1981 by the sibling pairs Claudia and Romeo Castellucci and Chiara and Paolo Guidi and it is now one of the most important companies in European contemporary theatre. The company has already made two guest appearances at the euro-scene Leipzig, with performances by Romeo Castellucci: in 1997 with »Giulio Cesare« (»Julius Caesar«), and in 2000 with »Voyage au bout de la nuit« (»Journey to the End of the Night«).