Piglet Icarus

“It started when…“ I began visiting kindergartens with the story of the Piglet Icarus from Donald Bisset’s Upside Down Stories. The puppet of the Piglet became the reason for naming the theatre “Piglet Icarus”. The two of us, V. Mazūras, and myself founded a theatre that broke away from “Lėlė“. Our theatre was exceptional in that everything, including scenography, directing and performing, was done by Mazūras himself; thus I guess it would be fair to call it Mazūra’s puppet theatre.”

The theatre under the name Paršiukas Ikaras was registered on February 13, 1997. The theatre brings its shows to kindergartens, schools, festivals and everywhere were it is invited.

The first puppet show of the theatre “Žeminėlis“ (later renamed into “Berniukas ir arkliukas“) was very well received and evaluated at the Finnish puppet theatre festival in 1994. The same year the theatre was recognised as one of the best among family-run theatres in Moscow, the capital of Russia.

With the assistance of the Youth Theatre, the theatre organized an international festival of puppet theatres in 1997; this festival set grounds for the founding of the UNIMA Lithuania.

In 1998, the theatre with its show “Berniukas ir arkliukas“ participated at the international festival in Sweden.

In 2000, the show “Trys paršiukai“ was performed in Denmark. The theatre also takes part in festivals held in Lithuania.

From the notes of Vitalijus Mazūras:

“Everything that you see in my shows comes back from my childhood, from the fairy tales told by my granny… I can still see in my mind that old cottage, the black lumber room with weaving looms and shuttles, I can see the big green pastures and us, running the kites we made ourselves; people would make a sign of cross seeing them and thinking that they see ghosts…

Childhood was and is my entire world, the world of fairy tales. We grew up like the characters of a fairy tale, seven brothers and a sister Elenytė. It is from this world that memories, thoughts and ideas are flooding like water from an endless stream; and it is these memories, thoughts and ideas that give life to the puppets and shows. I think, you can make theatre out of anything: straws, potatoes, willow twigs, wickers or even semolina porridge…A puppet is a symbol that invites to make a bold step to the other side of the routine. When I create performances, I am thinking about the parents, as well as their little ones.

I want the parents to hear and see things as their children hear and see them. I want them to find a path back to their childhood. After all, the nature of a child is beautiful and clean, like a white sheet of paper, where we, adults, have the privilege of making the first marks. Unfortunately, sometimes we are far from careful…I hope that the marks made by puppet shows will remain the most beautiful in the pure souls of children.”