White Tales

“White Tales” is a shadow-puppet theatre performance based on the fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen. Choosing this rare form of puppet theatre, director Nijolė Indriūnaitė and artist Aušra Bagočiūnaitė Paukštienė created a translucent, luminous performance that revives the traditions of paper-cutting in Lithuania and other European countries. For the poetic play, N. Indriūnaitė drew on three of H. C. Andersen’s Christmas tales: “The Little Match Girl,” “The Fir Tree,” and “The Snowman.” In this lyrical shadow play, the director asks the audience what a celebration is and what it means to us. We each understand celebration in our own way… But how do a lonely little Girl and a felled forest Fir Tree experience it? Theatre critic Audronė Girdzijauskaitė wrote of the performance: “A shadow-theatre performance—a form with no firmly established traditions in Lithuania—struck me that day as perfect in the small hall of ‘Lėlė’: the proportions of the objects, the grace of the silhouettes, the lighting, the clarity of the language and its lyrical tone (sentimentality was avoided!), the rhythms of movement and changes in the images, and the subtle acting style of Almirа Grybauskaitė and Elvyra Piškinaitė moved me to tears. A performance like this can be shown to everyone, everywhere.” (“A Restless March, or Unthinking Everyday Life,” “Literatūra ir menas,” 2007-03-16)