GoodbyeA puppet miniature about the passing away, length 30 min

Once upon a time Mr. August was young and strong, but now he is old and tired. Most of the time, he just seats and thinks about his life. In his life he had a wife Victoria, who was as black as night and as beautiful as a sunny day, six small, roguish children, three cuddles a day, 728 cucumbers … and also a letter or two in his mailbox, from time to time. Every morning, Mr August carefully checks his mail. Even when he feels very bad.

LIEE IS LIKE A DANDELION CLOCK

 

Death is a part of life.
We cannot predict it, we cannot escape it,
it is important, however, to give the mourning,
which follows the death of a loved one,
space and time.

(Damjana Dodič, psychologist)

 »Dear Mr. August, I am very sad. My daddy says that when they get old, guinea pigs can die,« little boy Leo writes to him. In his letters he asks himself through the child's perspective about passing, slowly facing the loss of his pet, the guinea pig August.

The thought of our own mortality, fragility and vulnerability of our lives frightens and saddens us, therefore we tend to shove the thought of death away and we can hardly talk about it. We also find it difficult to talk to children about this topic, because we are afraid that we could open or even deepen their pain. But in spite of everything, death is strongly present in their everyday life. Most often, children face with it through fairy tales, when they notice a dead animal on the road, a flower that has withered away, through the images that they can passingly notice in their surroundings or in the media, or with a loss of a pet …  

Developmental psychologist Dr. Ljubica Marjanović Umek emphasises »that children cannot always voice the need to talk about a subject, but this does not mean that they do not experience it«. Sometimes, it is easier to start a conversation about a sensitive topic, about which we often have prejudices, when we visit together a performance that offers an emotionally secure space and later on provides an opportunity for reflection and discussion about both our own and the child's comprehension of death, mortality, loss, melancholy and mourning.

Children perceive death differently than adults. They formulate their conception by means of personal explanations that they acquire through the sensory perception of their own experiences and the views of their family or surroundings, which they internalise at different stages of their development according to their mental capacities. They ask themselves a variety of questions, like what happens when we die, why do we die, how is it when we are dead, does it all end with death …

A poetic puppet miniature Goodbye does not bring answers. Through a child's perspective it gently lulls us into a story that subtly shows us that death is a natural part of life. It was inspired by one of the most award-winning and best-selling picture books by Swedish writer Ulf Nilsson. Published under the original title Adjö, herr Muffin in 2002, this popular picture book received the Swedish August Award for the best children's literature the same year.  

It is a touching story about passing, and parting, and at the same time a story about life, when we allow ourselves to go to the end of the world.

When we are getting old, everything slows down and what remains at the end, is but a memory that turns – just like the dandelion flower that was once yellow and blooming -, into delicate and fragile seeds, swirled by the winds high into the sky ... 

7TH MARCH 2019, KULTURNICA LGL