Thumbelina

The show takes inspiration from Thumbelina – widely known Hans Christian Andersen’s literary fairy tale about the adventure of tiny girl, who emerged from flower.

Thumbelina was so tiny that she used to sleep in walnut-shell cradle and she has a rose petal as her duvet. She was very happy until one day she was carried off by a toad who wants her as a bride for her son. That is how the great journey of tiny girl has started. The journey in search of happiness and own place in world…

The adventures of Thumbelina – tiny girl from magic seed – show us the world from small child’s point of view.  For both of them – small child and a tine character of our show – the whole world is huge, new and intriguing but due to its hugeness also scary.

Creators of the performance in order to show us the scale of surrounding  Thumbelina world has decided to use the big, interesting forms which – using by actors – become different characters and places. Showing the viewers -  also adults ones – reality from a tiny child point of view,  they choose those means of expression which are the strongest in a child perception.

„The story of tiny Thumbelina is one of the first story we tell our children. It is like a entrance to a world of fairy tales or more like a keyhole through which only those tiniest ones can pass. One the one hand it is bitter story – taking into consideration the consecutive loses, misfortunes and captures of our character, on the other hand it is full of adventures, learning new things, astonishments and admirations of the World in macro and micro scale. This combination act as a strong injection stimulating imagination of youngest ones, when identifying oneself with tiny girl, they compares own and hers experiences. In both case everything around is huge and interesting. The biggest and strongest one decides what are good for us, care for us and leads us by the hand. We are instinctively looking for a contact with those ones which are equal in size, age and experience but it turns out that it is not a guaranty that everything will be simple and comfortable.

Our show is a playing with forms, movements and sounds. Instead of words we decided to communicated with audience using the pictures. It act a bit like a mirror – the tiny ones can look at yourself in it. It is not our intention to teach them what is good and what is wrong, We prepare for them a bag of emotions. Every spectator can take this bag home with him and whenever he decides to open it he will long for visiting the theatre again”

Daniel Arbaczewski

the show is inspired by: Hans Christian Andersen’s literary fairy tale
directed by: Daniel Arbaczewski
stage design by: Dariusz Panas
music by: Hubert Pyrgies
choreography by: Marta Bury