GlittertonA children's adventure based on the novel by Špela Frlic, length 60 min

Glitterton is a well-kept residential area with benches and a playground. Beyond Glitterton lies Wild Glitterton, and the people of Glitterton don't go there! They prefer to watch the birds and chat on their playground.

When storyteller Silva and her crocodile Silvester move to town, they instantly shake up the order and peace of Glitterton. And then, every night a new glittering poo starts to appear on the playground, the birds disappear and a fog slowly creeps in from Wild Glitterton. Is it all somehow connected? Tom and Karolina have no choice but to conquer their fear and head straight into the fog with Silva and conductor Rozamund to find out more.

Set against the backdrop of a detective adventure, the play addresses the question of fear. It can have many faces and, let's face it, adults are sometimes as scared as children. But the effect of fear, no matter how (un)justified its cause, remains the same. It is contagious and the more we fear, the bigger and scarier it becomes. With the power of a child's imagination, it can transform the landscape behind the bench into a mysterious land ruled by a misty creature with a fairy-tale name. Whether you call the problem that Glitterton faces an unfounded or exaggerated fear of the strange and unfamiliar, bad weather or a scary fairy-tale creature, the solution remains the same: everyone joining together, regardless of the beliefs by which they measure the world. Music, which is also important for creating the atmosphere in Glitterton, is the universal language that connects everyone involved. Every time a bird of courage flies among us, it brings us more hope that together we will be able to overcome fear.

Maruša Kink is a theatre actress, director and co-founder and artistic director of the Margareta Schwarzwald Institute. In recent years, she has been intensively involved in productions for children and young people (Veliki pok, Prosto po Prešernu, Romeo in Julija, iCankar, Razcufane zgodbe, Bajke in povesti o Gorjancih), which she not only directs, but also conceptualises and adapts. Glitterton is the third production she will direct at the Ljubljana Puppet Theatre.

Špela Frlic is a storyteller, the programme manager of the Storytelling Festival and the idea and content manager of the Fairytale Studio project, which is dedicated to the development of storytelling competences in children at the Vodnik Homestead. Her debut novel Bleščivka (Mladinska knjiga, 2022), which drew on her years of experience as a storyteller and her knowledge of folk stories, was met with a positive response from readers and the professional public immediately upon its publication.

Premiere: 13 May 2023, Stage under the Stars