Operation Wolverine

OPERATION WOLVERINE Adventures of a little boy and his animal friends in the forest. Dad takes little Šimon camping in the forest overnight. Though the boy has received loads of dos and don’ts for his stay in the wilderness, everything goes wrong the second he arrives. He is kidnapped by a fox! Fortunately, it soon turns out that the fox and his animal friends need Šimon’s help. There is a wolverine bothering the animals in the forest. It is mad at the whole world and nobody knows why. Perhaps Šimon can find out and free the forest of the wolverine’s wrath. Or help the wolverine to get over his troubles. Or both. One way or another, Šimon will have to join forces with his new friends to solve the forest mystery, restore peace and quiet in the forest, and get back home.

This fairy-tale show for children was directed by the talented Johana Bártová, making her Naive Theatre debut. On the other hand, Robert Smolík, the production’s set and costume designer, has already prepared over a dozen successful pieces for the theatre, including Shhh. Shhh. Hooo. Woof!, Budulínek, and others).

The quests Šimon has to do for the animals take him into an underworld or up on the tree to get the miraculous glowing mistletoe, and help him to overcome his fears. And as the action continues, the seemingly boring part of the set comes to life, illuminating the animals’ corridors, dens and lairs. (…) The set and costume design is the work of Robert Smolík, who previously participated in the successful productions The Ram That Fell from the Sky or Shhh. Shhh. Hooo. Woof, a tale about dogs and trains, among others. His unique and unrivalled design for the new production confirms what many of the puppet shows for the youngest children prepared at the Naive Theatre have shown before. (…) The story is simple, straightforward, celebrating camaraderie and mutual help without feeling forced; it only takes forty minutes, flows in precise rhythm and is interspersed with humour and subtle puppet gags. It is best enjoyed with the audience of children who passionately respond to the action.
KAMILA ČERNÁ, Divadelní noviny

The production has everything you would expect of this type of show. It draws little children (4+) into the story, develops their imagination, touches the soul, invigorates the brain, entertains, educates, and moves. Though this piece is less spectacular in terms of artistic and puppetry mastery compared to Naive Theatre’s flagship productions, it shows the contemporary puppetry craft at its best, with all honesty, creativity personal passion and commitment. Kudoz to the creators, this is a theatrical joy!
VLADIMÍR HULEC, Divadelní.net

JOHANA BÁRTOVÁ (1997) studied photography and applied media at the Prague Graphic School. She continued her studies with the bachelor’s and master’s programmes in directing and dramaturgy at the DAMU Department of Alternative and Puppet Theatre in Prague. In 2019, she co-founded the theatre group FRAS, focusing mainly on puppetry. Apart from theatre work, she is also a photographer and lecturer. She regularly collaborates with the Scout Institute at Rybárna, the Vzlet cultural centre and recently also with DAMU, where she teaches courses in analog and digital photography for children and adults. This year, she also started teaching art at the children’s art and music school in Černošice.

NAIVE THEATRE LIBEREC was founded in 1949 as one of the first professional puppet theatres in the former Czechoslovakia. Its history is connected with the names of director and actor Jan Schmid (who founded the Ypsilon Studio there in 1963, which then moved to Prague in the 1970s), director Markéta Schartová and playwright Iva Peřinová. From the early 1990s its managing director was Stanislav Doubrava, since 2021 Kateřina Pavlů and Michaela Homolová act as its managing director and artistic head, respectively. The theatre’s most critically acclaimed plays include The Handsome Fire Chief or Fire in the National Theatre (2005), directed by Tomáš Dvořák. Its author, Iva Peřinová, was nominated among other things for an anniversary Alfréd Radok Award. The play was filmed by Czech Television, and the company also performed it repeatedly on the stage of the National Theatre’s historic building. Five years later the same creative team produced a puppet interpretation of Tchaikovsky’s famous ballet – Little Swan Lake (2009). Another area of long-term success has been the theatre’s work for small children, created by director Michaela Homolová and author and dramaturge Vít Peřina. Their production of Budulínek (2012) won an award for the best Czech puppet theatre production of the year. A further production by the team, The Ram That Fell from the Sky (2014), met with similar acclaim. The company’s other successes include the ‘magical’ productions Bohemia is by the Sea (2016), There are Places the Dark Likes, Where Never and Nothing Hide on Islands Remote (2017) and Shhh. Shhh. Hooo. Woof! (2019). All these productions – especially The Ram, universally understandable in language terms – were successful not just at the Divadlo festival, but were invited to a number of prestigious Czech and foreign theatre festivals. The Naive Theatre is a regular guest at these festivals, undertaking numerous journeys not only to most European countries, but also to China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the US, Canada, Mexico, India, Israel, Korea and Pakistan. This June, the 28th year of the Mateřinka International Festival of Professional Puppet Theatres took place. It is held in Liberec every two years and is organized by the Naive Theatre.