Animar 2009, a survey

Animar is the only puppet festival in Sardinia, and one that covers almost any kind of puppet animation, from glove to marionettes, to shadows. This year’s was the fourth edition and as the previous ones was set in the beautiful small town of Teulada, in the inland between Cagliari and St. Antioco Island.The rich program included artists from all over Europe.

The evenings started with a short show (half an hour) for children and adults. In this section were some of the best productions of the whole festival: in fact, together with “Stop” of the Hungarian company Mikropodium, were presented “Circus Gockelini” of the Fundus Company and “Jojo Golendrini episode 1 and 2”, an extremely funny little marionette show inspired by a cartoon character. The puppeteer Cristophe Croes is technically very skilled, and his characters are not just well animated, they have nice stories.

Another good show with a vintage charm about it was “Robinson”, from the French group Le Papierthèàtre Company: Defoe’s classic story staged with paper theatres, a technique that comes from the 19^th century, which is now knowing a time of renovation in France.

The second section was dedicated to productions for the whole family, of about one hour. Most of them were glove puppets shows. Alberto De Bastiani’s “Santi e Briganti” and Ismascareddas “Areste Paganos e I Giganti”, were top notch, giving a new reading of the italian tradition.

While De Bastiani works with the classic characters of “La commedia dell’arte” such as Arlecchino, and new stories not taken from the well known traditional “canovacci”, Ismascareddas invented a completely new tradition in Sardinia, where there wasn’t any in glove puppetry. Areste Paganos is in fact their creature, son of the Devil and Pulcinella, but even so, rather a wise and funny character, smart but not cruel.

Other shows were more pretentious, with big boots and a wide choiche of animation techniques. The results were very different: “Al paese di Pocapaglia” by Oltreilponte Teatro was funny and refined. The puppeteer animates, plays accordium and sings and is good at all of them.

“Cinderella Vampirella” of Teatro Pirata mixes muppets and glove puppets, and has nice scenery. Unfortunately, the story (which is a remake of “Snowhite and the seven dwarves”) isn’t particularly brilliant and the reason for choosing different puppets is not always clear.

Both shows’ aim is to amaze the audience, and they succeed. Even so, De Bastiani and Ismascareddas are just another class.

“The Magic Tree” (Cenzik Ozek Shadow Theatre) was the only shadow show in this section, a traditional Karagòz adventure. Undoubtely, the animator is very good and shadows have an incredible fascination. The real problem was that the text hadn’t been translated into Italian, and therefore the show was difficult to understand for the audience, especially children.

Toni Zafra from Spain brought a marionette's variety show, "Mòn Nan", based on the classic theme of the circus. Although I usually don't like this kind of exhibition of pure animation ability, I must admit not only that he's an incredible marionettist, but also that his show has a kind of warmt that makes it different from many others of the kind. Still, I prefer stories rather than tricks, and I think that it's time for marionettes to shake off this "more real than reality" spell that hangs about them.

The last section of the festival took place after the families’ show and proposed a range of more experimental works, clearly aimed to an adult audience.

Among these the best is “Con Anima”, again by Mikropodium, a touching little piece in which a little troll god works on his own “creation”. Then “Favola Raminga”, the nice story of a little puppet character who escapes from his everyday life to follow his dreams. Gianluca di Matteo brought three different shows: two with guarattelle (napolitan glove puppets) and one with hand shadows, “L’uomo che viveva nell’armadio”. Di Matteo has a good sensitivity for theatre and shows ability and versatility in passing from the loud Pulcinella to the elegant tones of a shadow show. A promising young talent.

On the whole Animar 2009 kept a high standard, balancing successfully between entertainment and modern puppetry, satisfying both popular and adult or professional audiences. Personally, I hope that more and more attention will be given in the next editions to experimental and adult side: in this fields Italy has talents, but is still behind. And some of the shows in this festival proved once and for all that puppets are not just a children’s game.