SAVITRI

The story is based on the ancient Indian legend of the Mahabharata, about the love and perseverance of princess Savitri, who rescues her husband from the thralls of death. Visually impressive, the interplay of colourful shadows on a large screen (2 by 2 metres) is accompanied by the stylized voice of the narrator-musician, who uses a range of original, self-made and untraditional musical instruments. The design and sound of the production is loosely inspired by the oriental stage techniques, creating a specific and original form.

The production, with great success, has toured numerous leading festivals in the Czech Republic and abroad (Vienna, Frankfurt (Oder), Potsdam, Leipzig, Ghent, Mistelbach, Madrid and others). In 2000, at the national festival of marionette theatres ?Pelet nad loutkkm hnzdem?, the production received the audience prize and the Erik prize.

• Lisen Theatre is an independent professional theatre company, founded in 1998 by Pavla Dombrovska and Ludek Vemola. Its approach is characterized by a strong element of stylization based on experimenting with design, sound, music, and movement. A substantial part of the company?s repertoire is constituted by marionette productions for adults. In its work, Lisen Theatre uses old and traditional theatre techniques and forms (inspired by folk theatre, or oriental stage techniques), and investigates new and unusual ways of applying them. Individual productions are the results of a long term work; creating one production usually takes about a year. The shows tour the country as well as appearing in European festivals with translated versions of the productions.

  Since 1999, the project ?Theatre for the forgotten audiences? (Divadlo zapomenutimu publiku) has been taking Lisen Theatre productions to children?s homes, institutes of social care, diagnostic institutes, mental asylums and hospitals, refugee camps, and the like. The company seeks audiences for whom theatregoing is impossible or problematic, the physically, the mentally and the socially impaired. Lisen Theatre performs its shows and runs artistic-dramatic workshops for audiences of this kind.

  The name of the company is derived from one of the suburbs of Brno, where the company has its base. In contrast to Brno?s other theatres, Lisen Theatre does not focus its activities on the centre of Brno, but rather on the periphery. The objective of the company members is to influence the region creatively and make sorties into local everyday life with small cultural invasions. They organize street-culture processions and perform in the street for their neighbours. They seek interesting places in the neighbourhood and expose their singularity.

  In 1999, the company discovered the former Community Hall of Lisen Theatre which was abandoned and doomed to destruction. From its ?ruins? they nurtured a provisional programme which now culminates yearly in the Lisen Theatre Festival. This has led the municipality to renew their interest in the building.
  Lisen Theatre Festival provides a platform for non-commercial and experimental companies with an original theatrical as well as musical input. The event is accompanied by exhibitions, film showings, and literary readings. Recently, the dramaturgy of the Festival has invited remarkable and exceptional foreign groups, which Lisen Theatre has encountered on its tours abroad.
  Lisen Theatre?s Community Hall has become the seat and the stage of the company, as well as the most important centre for cultural and social life in the Lisen Theatre
  district.

Director ? Pavla Dombrovska
Artists — Eva Kraenska, Jana Francova
Actors ? Pavla Dombrovska, Ludek Vemola, Tomas Pavcik, Irena Mostkova

Music — Ludek Vemola

Duration ? 50 min.

Age — 3-101years.