Seal

Every person, animal and thing has a soul. This understanding is possessed, for the most part, by those forgotten but still living peoples who, however inscrutable they seem to us, hold in their hands the threads of the collective unconscious of cultural memory. The Seal is a play based on the motifs of Lapp folktales and the ethnic heritage of this disappearing culture. They tell us and make us recognise that there are modes of communication other than language.

 

And just as the Sámi people understand how to perform "magic" through joik, the creators of The Seal understand the magic of paper, lights and playful musical compositions. The paper landscape on the grand stage begets life in ever-shifting forms. The interplay of images and sounds captures impressions of natural, primal life: the ambience under the northern lights, dynamic scenes of hunting deer, the sounds of Theremin and polyphonic singing. Where cities sprawl today, glaciers once slowly slid into the sea. Where masses of cars pile up today, elk herds once used to flee to the north, chased by the Lapp.

 

The viewer becomes a part of a forgotten world where animals, stories and legends emerge and disappear in crumpled paper. The performers conjure them up from nothing, from a game of surprising metamorphoses. The viewer can freely choose whether to follow the exploration of the north, the stories or... their feelings. The tender central story of a relationship between two fellow creatures, a human and a seal, makes that last aspect unavoidable. Every human is also a seal—and every seal a human.

Since the play works on multiple levels and is built around music, it is suitable for all audiences. Its message for younger viewers is primarily about the importance of conserving ecosystems and about preserving and transmitting stories, as well as authentic modes of communication. This is what the play itself is built around—communication, primal nature and illusion that emerges from nothing.

The renowned puppet director Matija Solce will be looking for the expressiveness of material, sound and subject matter with the help of other experienced collaborators, relying on his theatrical experience as well as the musical and cultural ties, he has created over a decade of his collaboration, guest appearances and study in Scandinavia. His creative team will be composed of the collaborators, boasting years of experience as with this subject as well as its medium of creation.