Financially Supported by HCA2005

The Royal Danish Theatre
Project Management: The Royal Danish Theatre.
The Royal Danish Theatre opens the bicentennial celebration of the birth of Hans Christian Andersen with a performance entitled "Horseradish Soup and Stuffed Cabbage" that unites drama, mime, singing, dance, music and artistry - the quintessence of Andersen's art.
The world premiere is scheduled as a Royal Command Performance at the Old Stage on 1 April 2005 and will feature Danish actors and actresses Kirsten Olesen, Bodil Jørgensen and Kurt Ravn in the lead roles. The Swedish director Lars Rudolfsson ("Kristina from Duvemåla") along with costume designer Kersti Vitali and composer Savannah Agger will stage an enchanted fantasia that draws on characters, themes and fairytales from the literary world of Hans Christian Andersen, featuring actors, soloist vocalists, a women?s choir, dancers, mimes, and acrobats.
The title refers to Andersen's fairytale "The Storm Shifts the Signboards" in which Andersen writes of a terrible storm that had menaced the city, blowing things about so they appeared in novel and odd places. Among the wayward objects were a weather cock, a sentry box, a barbers shop signboard and a fishmonger's signboard. But yet another feature was in the brew: "The eating-house keeper's bill of fare, which had hung at his door in a heavy frame, was posted by the storm over the entrance to the theatre where nobody went. It was a ridiculous list - 'horse-radish soup and stuffed cabbage.' And now people came in plenty."
Theatre was pivotal to Andersen's life and the object of his dreams. This is why Lars Rudolfsson has sought to create a performance that reflects the world of theatre. The fairytale almost seems conceived on set - a change of scene becomes an act in itself when stage hands start to dance and when set props take on a life of their own. Andersen is represented as both young and old and somewhere in between: as a dreamer and as a man.
This will not be a performance about Hans Christian Andersen, but a tribute to him. A performance he would have enjoyed and one that would have made him break out in tears as he so often would when something touched him. But first and foremost, it is an amazing fantasia set in a grand auditorium. The performance will be staged 12 times at the Old Stage in April and May 2005.
The Royal Command Performance on Friday 1 April will be televised live by The Danish Broadcasting Corporation, DR1.
www.kgl-teater.dk

Odense Theatre
Project Manager: Director Kasper Wilton, Odense Theatre.
Odense Theatre has scheduled a number of performances in connection with the Andersen bicentenary:

"Kender du Svimmel?"
"Kender du Svimmel?" (Do you Know Dizzy?). A newly composed chamber play by playwright Sven Holm reflecting Andersen at a mature age. The performance conveys Hans Christian Andersen the poet and man as a sensitive, impulsive and inquisitive person - a dynamic architect of his own life. But he is also monstrously self-centred; a pathological hypochondriac who is so vulnerable and hyper-sensitive that engaging in normal relationships with his fellow man is almost impossible for him.
We experience Andersen's ambivalent relationship with the Collin family and we witness how he falls head over heals in love with both men and women; how he delves into his own soul to grasp the universality of the human condition. We join him on travels through Europe where he is surrounded by admirers, princes and aristocracy as well as porters and prostitutes. And we join him as an elderly man in Odense when he was hailed as honorary citizen. The play will be directed by Henrik Sartou. Danish actor Jesper Langberg will perform Andersen. Premiere: 2 April 2005, Odense Theatre Main Stage.

"Den røde stol".
"Den røde stol" (The Red Chair) will be performed on selected Saturdays at Odense Theatre during the Andersen bicentenary. A wide variety of Andersen's fairytales will be performed as readings by actors and drama students. The readings, appealing to adults and children alike, will take place in a convivial café setting on Saturdays between 10:30 am and 11:15 am. There is no entry fee. The event was launched on 15 January when Anker Taasti performed a reading of "The Fairy Tale of My Life". Access the programme here.

"Skyggespor"
"Skyggespor" (Traces of a Shadow). Eight fourth-year drama students from Odense Theatre drama school will seek to uncover the secret of the shadow. Director: Jonathan Paul Cook. Set design: Poul Fly Plejdrup. Percussionist: Birgit Løkke. The performance will be staged at Sukkerkogeriet between 12 May and 11 June 2005. Advance booking starts 14 March.
www.odenseteater.dk

The West Zealand Regional Theatre Council/ Baggårdteatret/ Danish ASSITEJ
Project Manager: Managing Director Michael Ramløse, Teatret Fairplay, and Anette Eggert.
In 2003, the West Zealand County hosted Denmark's first international children's theatre festival entitled "Caravanen" (The Caravan). In 2005, the festival will return to West Zealand but will also visit South Funen and Aarhus.
The 2005 summer festival will feature some of the world's best children's theatre performances from national, regional and international stages. The 2005 festival poses an opportunity for the performers to delve deep into the heart and soul of Hans Christian Andersen to render interpretations of Andersen's fairytales that appeal to adults and children alike. In all, 8 - 10 international and 5 Danish productions featuring 130 performances will be staged during the festival.
The festival will be organised as a caravan tour starting in the County of West Zealand and continuing to the Aarhus Festival before reaching the town of Svendborg on South Funen. Audiences will have the opportunity to experience Gruppe 38's "The Little Matchgirl" as well as entirely new performances, such a new version of "What the Old Man Does is Always Right" by the Bulgarian theatre group Credo and an Andersen fantasia by young Russian performers created in collaboration with Chekhov Festival in Moscow.
The "Caravanen" festival will feature a number of workshops, lectures, excursions and seminars for participating theatre groups. The festival is organised by the West Zealand Regional Theatre Council represented by Michael Ramløse, the theatre Baggårdteatret in Svendborg represented by Anette Eggert and the Danish department of the International Children's Theatre Association, ASSITEJ, represented by Klaus Eggert.
"Caravanen 2005" will take place between 21 and 28 August in the town of Slagelse and will then be staged at Randers Egnsteater. Performances are scheduled in Aarhus between 26 August and 2 September, in Svendborg between 2 - 9 September, and in Kerteminde on 9 October 2005.
www.hcavestamt.dk

Gladsaxe Theatre
"MY FAIRY TALE" is a multimedia musical reflecting 24 hours when Hans Christian Andersen as a young man spent the night at the Royal Danish Theatre. This musical production seeks to rejuvenate the international musical theatre tradition. With few exceptions neither Broadway nor West End has contributed innovatively to the genre for the last two decades. The performance at Gladsaxe Theatre will be a spectacular multimedia musical that embraces radical and innovative new approaches to theatre, thus setting the stage for the musical of the future. It will be the most costly new musical production in Denmark ever with a current budget of DKK 20 million.
"MY FAIRY TALE" embraces a bold and innovative aesthetical idiom. Audiences will experience an onslaught of spectacular audiovisual effects and sweeping musical performances. Many different kinds of media will be employed, including a shadow play based on Andersen's own paper cuts as well as puppets and marionettes in every conceivable size, world-class acrobatics and a laterna magica. The ambition is to capture and adapt Andersen's unique fairytale universe on stage.
Script: Philip LaZebnik. Music: Stephen Schwartz ("Pippin", "Godspell", "Wicked"), the Chinese star entertainer Cui Jian as well as a host of familiar songs (the concept is inspired by the Baz Luhrmann movie "Moulin Rouge"). Director: Flemming Enevold.
The musical will premier on 8 October 2005. Ticket sales have already opened.
www.gladsaxeteater.dk

The Odin Theatre
"Andersens drøm" (Andersen's Dream). The artistic director of the Odin Theatre, Eugenio Barba, taps into what Andersen called "the anarchy of the fairytale" when presenting his performances as an "evil and immoral tour guide upsetting their (the audience's, ed.) sense of judgement and security". The touring performance will seek to relate some of Andersen's fairytales to events in his life. Partners: Le Théâtre du Soleil, France, Teatro Atalaya, Spain, Teatre Tascabile de Bergamo, Italy and the Center for Studies of Jerzy Grotowski, Poland. Premiere: Autumn 2004 followed by a tour visiting Seville, Madriud, Turin, Bergamo, Belgrade, Odense and Copenhagen.

Tour-plan 2005:
February: 3-14 Limone Fonderie Teatrali, Via Pastrengo 88 - Moncalieri - TORINO, Italy
March: 2-4, 7 and 9 The Odin Theatre - HOLSTEBRO, Denmark
April: 10. - 15. WROCLAW, Poland
Mai: 2-6 Teatro Tascabile di Bergamo - BERGAMO,Italy
         16-20 FLORENCE, Italy
         27-29 maybe GENOVA, Italy
August:10-12 The Odin Theatre - HOLSTEBRO, Denmark
September: 22-? BITEF Festival, BEOGRAD - Serbia
October: 15-? maybe MILANO, Italy
                27-? November EXETER, England
November: maybe Gran Theatre for Dancing, ÅRHUS, Denmark

Tour-plan 2006:
February: maybe Théâtre du Soleil, PARIS, France
              maybe Italy
April: maybe Copenhagen, Denmark
www.odinteatret.dk

Svanekegården Puppet Theatre
The Svanekegården Active Cultural Centre of Bornholm, represented by Preben Harris, has created four marionette performances based on Andersen's fairytales "The Story of a Mother", "The Nightingale", "The Tinderbox", and "Thumbelina". The performances have been created in close collaboration with puppeteers from the Baltic region and The Czech Republic. Suited for children aged 4 - 12.
www.svanekegaarden.dk

Hotel Pro Forma
Project Manager: Artistic Director Kirsten Delholm.
In cooperation with the Danish National Choir and Schauspiel Köln Hotel Pro Forma presents a visible musical manoeuvre about Hans Christian Andersen. The title "I Only Appear to be Dead" refers to the handwritten note Hans Christian refers to the handwritten note Hans Christian Andersen placed on his bedside table at night, due to his fear of being buried alive. But the title could just as well refer to the considerable attention devoted to his person and work at the present time. For most of his life, Andersen recorded his experiences in diary form, as a conscious form of staged documentarism. With the historical, social and technological development of 19th century Denmark and Europe as a thought provoking background, he was constantly travelling in order to gain new impressions. Many journeys and extended stays abroad did not mean, however, that he ever lost sight of his native country or himself. The performance focuses on the writer himself, using material from the gifted accounts and characteristic comments of his diaries.

"I Only Appear to be Dead" exposes the frightening aspects of Andersen's journeys and exposes the frightening aspects of Andersen's journeys and fantasies. Concrete descriptions and comments turn into a series of scenic situations in several versions. Hints of a sequence change into polyphonic tales of light and shadow. The long, narrow stage (29m x 4m) follows the length of the room. Depth and distance between audience and performers is replaced by proximity and a panoramic experience of space. The spectators follow the figures in the outstretched landscape with a gaze extending from one side to the other. The music, composed for a mixed a capella choir of twelve voices, transforms the diary entries into a sound-image modulated by polyphonic tones. Live song and electronically adapted voice-sounds stand out from each other, merge and set boundaries. Together, they form suggestive pieces of proximity and distance. Within the acoustically spatial architecture, the childlike nature and metaphysical dread of the writer collide.

World premiere in Germany: 9 April 2005, Halle Kalk, Schauspiel Köln, Cologne
Performances 11 - 15 April 2005
Premiere in Denmark: 18 August 2005, Christiansborg Ridehus, Copenhagen
Performances 19 August - 3 September 2005
Premiere in Italy: 22 September, La Biennale di Venezia, Teatro alle Tese, Venice
Performances 22 - 23 September 2005
www.hotelproforma.dk  

Odsherred Theatre
Project Manager: Director Simon Vagn Jensen.
"Gæsten" (The Guest) is the title of a play that deals with Hans Christian Andersen's visit to home of Charles Dickens created by one of Sweden's most celebrated authors and playwrights, Niklas Rådströms.
A note hanging in Charles Dickens's home at Gads Hill Place in Kent, dated July 1857, reads: "Hans Andersen slept in this room for five weeks, which seemed like an ETERNITY for the family". Dickens hung up the note following Andersen's visit.
The play is co-produced with Jomfru Ane Teatret and portrays two of the heavyweights of world literature who exchanged letters for years and held each other in high esteem. Nevertheless, when they met in person their meeting was a huge disappointment, and for Andersen almost a tragedy. The play is inspired by Jackie Wullschlager's biography "Hans Christian Andersen - The Life of a Storyteller" (2000), which focuses on their correspondence and the many similarities between Andersen and Dickens, not least their social indignation. The performance will feature as a very visual and engaging commentary far from the trappings of convention. The performance is no tribute to a national hero but rather a portrayal of two literary geniuses as the men they were in good and bad. Fall 2005. The performance will also be staged in Aarhus.
www.odsherredteater.dk

Lise Schrøder
"Min søn digteren" (My Son the Poet). A monologue portraying Andersen's mother. "She was Good for Nothing" is tale by Andersen where he with great sympathetically recounts the story of his broken and alcoholic mother. Danish author Dorrit Willumsen has with great empathy created a touching monologue where the washerwoman from Odense relates the story of her world-famous son and the childhood Andersen suffered, which was to provide inspiration for a lifetime. Her pride in her son, who was all but a stranger to her, is apparent. The play renders insight into her harsh existence in an age long before the comforts of the modern welfare state.
The play has been especially created for actress Lise Schrøder. The performance will be directed by Jan Hertz and will be featured nationwide during the Andersen bicentenary.
It will premiere at the Danish national gallery, Statens Museum for Kunst, on 13 February and will be staged there until 20 February. Admission 30 kr. Performances will be in English as well as Danish.
www.smk.dk

CPH / Copenhagen Performance House
"Fodreise" (Journey on Foot) is a scenic rendition of Hans Christian Andersen's novel "Journey on Foot from Holmens Canal to the East Point of Amager". Andersen's journey across Amager in 1829 was a journey to the far corners of his imagination. Just as Andersen in his novel uncovers his narrative process step by step, director Rolf Heim and choreograph Tim Feldmann seek to discover the man behind the story. The performance presents a surreal and absurd universe featuring dance, poetry, and realism.
Cast:
Actors: Charlotte Elizabeth Munksgaard and Thomas Corneliussen
Dancers: Helen Saunders and Pontus Sundset
Cellist: Chris Lancaster
Performances: 18 May - 4 June 2005 at Kanonhallen, Copenhagen.
www.cphcph.dk / www.kanonhallen.net

Kaleidoskop / Cirkus Cirkör
Contact person: Ida Burén, Cirkus Cirkör.
"The Mermaid". Katrine Wiedemann and Tilde Björfors will create a new rendition of "The Little Mermaid" in joint collaboration with the Swedish circus Cirkus Cirkör. The performance combines theatre with modern circus and focuses on the visual aspect rather than the spoken word. This is the real mermaid. Gone is the sugary, shallow rendition of the tale. Andersen's poetic, subtle and amazingly beautiful fairytale is back, featuring the small, tortured mermaid and who sacrifices her immortality to be with her beloved prince. Katrine Wiedemann has worked with Cirkus Cirkör on other projects, including the acclaimed performance of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" at the national theatre in Stockholm, Dramaten. Katrine Wiedemann is self-taught and is one of the leading directors in her generation in Denmark. Her staging includes Wilson/Waits' "Black Rider" and "Alice in Wonderland".
Cirkus Cirkör has since 1995 established itself as the most influential modern circus in the Nordic countries and their performances are international attractions. "The Mermaid", which will star Melinda Kinnamann from Dramaten in the lead role, has been developed for an international audience and will be featured worldwide. It will feature at Kedelsmedien in Copenhagen 14 May - 18 July 2005, Stockholm in the late summer, and 1 - 3 May 2006 in Aarhus.
www.kaleidoskop.dk / www.cirkor.se

20th Century Ghost
"H.C. @ndersen". The performance was created by Claus Beck-Nielsen, who will also appear on stage. Andersen the man rather than his fairytales will take centre stage - the complex nature of his character. On the one hand, a scheming, megalomaniac upstart, yet on the other hand a neurotic, paranoid and asexual hypochondriac with an inferiority complex. Furthermore, the performance deals with Andersen's legacy - the rumours, myths and the numerous adaptations of his life to the stage and screen; the tacky merchandise and hospitals and even porn clubs named after him, but also his letters, diaries, travel book, novels and the thousands of characters in his fairytales. Andersen's ambivalence and sense of insecurity are pivotal to the show. The poet is transported to a modern-day hotel setting surrounded by 1357 actors, who all claim to be Andersen, where he is besieged by no less than 35 media agencies. Premiere at Kaleidoskop in August 2005. Performed at Svalegangen in Aarhus in September 2005.
www.kaleidoskop.dk

Holbæk Theatre
Project Manager: Director Pia Jette Hansen.
"Milde Himmel - en fest med H.C. Andersen". (Good Gracious - A Party with Hans Christian Andersen). A musical and fairytale performance for the whole family. The performance, which draws inspiration from Danish castles and manor farms, the age of Romanticism and 'living toys', is co-produced by Holbæk Theatre and Holbæk Museum to feature alongside an exhibition. The performance borrows from vaudeville, which was a genre much used by Andersen himself. The musical is set in one of the numerous manor farms frequented by Andersen and features a gathering of the good and the great. Andersen is haunted by his own imagination and random visitations by fairytale characters - a kind of Hans Christian Andersen's "A Midsummer Night's Dream". The performance will be directed by Henrik Prip, who has also mastered the script. Christian Baltzer has composed the original score for the performance, and the musical will be choreographed by Susanne Breuning. The performance will be staged in Holbæk 1 - 13 January 2005 and will tour nationwide with performances being staged in Copenhagen at Hippodromen 8 - 27 February.
www.het.dk

Ex Machina / Robert Lepage (Canada)
Project Manager: Michel Bernatchez, producer Ex Machina.
One of the most celebrated directors of international theatre, Canadian Robert Lepage, is to create a solo performance inspired by Andersen's life (especially his visit to the World Fair in Paris in 1867) as well as his fairytale "The Dryad". The performance deals with the dawn of modernism and the technical inventions of the time, which are juxtaposed throughout the performance with Andersen's poetical realm.
What characterises Robert Lepage's work is that his performances centre on an encounter between a historical and a contemporary person. His Andersen performance also features a contemporary person who visits Paris exactly 100 years after Andersen's visit and whose travels back in time. Robert Lepage is to play the solo part. The performance will premiere at Le Théâtre du Trident in Quebec 22 February - 19 March 2005 to be followed by a world tour, which will include an appearance at the Royal Danish Theatre 18 - 22 May 2005 and a performance at the Barbican in London in January or February 2006.
www.exmachina.qc.ca / www.letrident.com  

Volksbühne, Berlin (Germany)
"Meine Schneekönigin" (My Snow Queen). Play by Frank Castorf, who is currently one of Germany's most controversial names within drama, setting new standards for European theatre. His provocative and often very political performances are staged at the Volksbühne in Berlin, which he has headed since 1992. In 2005, Castoft will stage a performance drawing on Andersen's fairytale world, primarily "The Snow Queen", which will emphasise anxiety, eroticism, and death. The play, which lasts an uninterrupted 2 hours and 40 minutes, premiered at Volksbühne on 16 December 2004. It was staged at MC93 Bobigny in Paris from 11 to 13 February 2006 under the title "Ma Reine des neiges" as part of the Festival Le Standard idéal 2005. It will also be performed at the Royal Danish Theatre, Turbinehallerne, in Copenhagen from August 27 - 29.

"A wild performance which uncovers aspects of the poet seldom revealed. (...) Frank Castorf's Meine Schneekönigin is a grand and overwhelming homage to Hans Christian Andersen, who loved theatre."
Henriette Harris, Dagbladet Information

"Castorf uncovers Andersen, and in Andersen he uncovers himself; a biography of the wondrous, wonderful poet, who took on the wide world as an impoverished man to become an artist of the theatre".
Rüdiger Schaper, Tagespiegel
www.volksbuehne-berlin.de  

The Lincoln Center Festival / Chen Shi-Zheng (USA)
Andersen's autobiography is called "The Fairy Tale of My Life", and the Sino-American director Chen Shi-Zheng takes the poet's word for it in a very personal graphical play that weaves Andersen?s famous fairytale characters into Andersen's fabulous yet tortured life story. The performance takes creative form on stage in a theatrical game that seeks to capture Andersen's magic. The performance will star Blair Brown, who is acclaimed for her performance as Jackie Kennedy vis-à-vis Martin Sheen in the TV series on J.F.K. She has also appeared in Lars von Trier's "Dogville". And finally, the show also stars Mia Maestro, who played Che Guevara's ravishingly beautiful girlfriend in "Motorcycle Diaries"
The melancholic songs are by the New York-based composer Stephen Merritt, who is best known for the rock group The Magnetic Fields behind "69 Love Songs" from 1999. Critics have likened Merritt's bitter-sweet style to that of Cole Porter.
The performance will premiere at the Lincoln Center Festival in New York on 27 July 2005 and will play until 30 July. It will also be staged at the Aarhus Festival in Denmark 2 - 3 September. Chen Shi-Zheng has appeared at the Aarhus Festival before with his performance "The Peony Pavilion".
www.lincolncenter.org

Nós de Morro (Brazil)
"Patunaíma" is inspired by both the Brazilian author Mário de Andrade and Hans Christian Andersen. The play portrays a mesmerising encounter between the amoral Brazilian hero, Macunaíma, and the ugly duckling. The story features two characters who due to their odd appearance are marginalised from society. The theatre group Nós do Morro has existed for 17 years and is committed to engaging the local community in their work; an undertaking for which they have often received official recognition. The play will be performed in Rio de Janeiro from July 2005 and will then tour different provincial theatres.
www.nosdomorro.com.br
 
Teatro de los Sentidos / Enrique Vargas (Spain)
Project Management: Enrique Vargas, Teatro de los Sentidos, Barcelona, and Andreas Neumann, Andreas Neumann International.
The Spanish theatre Teatro de los Sentidos, directed by the Colombian star director Enrique Vargas, has specialised in complex sensual labyrinths. In the summer of 2005, Enrique Vargas will stage a fairytale labyrinth in Copenhagen. The labyrinth reflects how Andersen brings inanimate things to life and features as a toy box that allows visitors to embark on a sensual journey into the world of Andersen empowered with his sensitivity and creative imagination. The Danish audience has already had the opportunity to encounter Vargas earlier works, e.g. when his labyrinth "Oracolos" was featured at the Aarhus Festival in 1995. The Andersen labyrinth will premiere in Barcelona in April 2005 and will tour internationally, visiting Pisa in Italy among other places. In Denmark the labyrinth will be staged at Kanonhallen in Copenhagen 2 - 28 August 2005 in collaboration with Copenhagen International Theatre, KIT.
www.teatrodelossentidos.com

Oria Puppo and Alejandro Tantanjan (Argentina)
The Argentine director Alejandro Tantanjan, in association with set designer Oria Puppo, will create a modern tale based on Andersen's fairytale "The Emperor's New Clothes" that deals with the fallacy and corruption of power. The performance will reflect three modes of narrative reception: watching, listening and reading. Narrative variations of Andersen's fairytales are explored, and as a visual feature the performance employs satirical and documentary images of power created by 20th century artists - images that pose special significance to the people of Latin America with their history of dictatorship. The main narrator is the impressive Nigerian actor Hassane Kassi Kouate, who has worked with star director Peter Brook.
Alejandro Tantanjan (born 1966) is a multi-talented director, actor and singer based in Buenos Aires where the performance will premiere as part of the city's theatre festival. He has created a large number of plays and librettos and has worked with as renowned theatre groups as El Periferico del Objectos. His drama is regarded as being socially aware and often features surreal images and features that integrate sensual perception.
Premiere: The spring of 2005 in Buenos Aires. The performance will be featured 1 and 2 September at the Aarhus Festival in Denmark, among other places. 


Logo Cooperations

The Icelandic Opera / Flóð & fjara / Domus Vox (Iceland)
Project Manager: Johan Loftsson.
The Icelandic Opera will perform "The Little Matchgirl" during the 2004/5 and 2005/6 winter seasons. The script by Jeremy Paul and Leslie Steward was created in 1976 when it was performed under the title "Scraps" with music by Keith Strachan. The Cliff Richard hit "Mistletoe and Wine" from 1987 is based on this score. The performance will be co-produced between Flóð & fjara, the Domus Vox school of singing, and the Icelandic Opera. The performance will feature amateurs as well as professionals.
www.opera.is

Érase Producciones (Spain)
Project Manager: Manuel Román.
"Los Cuentos de Andersen" (The Tales of Andersen) is a marionette play for the whole family created by Érase Producciones, famous for numerous popular Spanish TV programmes. The performance will premiere at the prestigious autumn festival in Madrid and will tour Spain.
www.eraseproducciones.com

The Terrapin Puppet Theatre (Australia)
Project Manager: Marianne Taylor.
"The Storyteller's Shadow" relates the story of Andersen's life with reference to fairytales such as "The Emperor's New Clothes", "The Ugly Duckling" and "The Little Matchgirl". The Australian Terrapin Puppet Theatre is based in Hobart, Tasmania. The play will be featured on 1 and 2 September 2005 at the Peacock Theatre of Salamanca, Hobart, Tasmania. The Hans Christian Andersen 2005 Foundation has (via the Hans Christian Andersen Children's Theatre Festival) sponsored the theatre's production entitled "The Garden of Paradise", which is based on Andersen's tale by the same name. It will be featured at the Tasmanian festival "Ten Days on the Island". Different kinds of marionette theatre are employed in the performance, including shadow play performed in a model theatre. The director is the internationally acclaimed puppet-maker Richard Bradshaw. The performance will be staged 1 - 4 April 2005. www.terrapin.org.au

The Setagaya Public Theatre (Japan)
Contact persons: In Europe: Judy Owen; In Japan: Producer Metumi Ishii, the Setagaya Public Theatre.
The Tokyo-based theatre Setagaya Public Theatre and the Italian theatre company Teatro Kismet in Bari will jointly produce a novel rendition of Andersen's fairytale "The Snow Queen". The production will be developed through a number of workshops in Tokyo attended by young Japanese actors and musicians. The workshops will be headed by the Italian director and author Teresa Lucovico. The production has been sponsored by: Kirari-Fujimi Hall (Saitama Prefecture), the Fukuoka City Foundation for the Promotion of the Arts and Culture (Fukuoka), the Kani Public Arts Center Ala (Gifu) and Biwako Hall (Shiga). "The Snow Queen" will premiere in Tokyo at the Setagaya Public Theatre in August 2005 followed by a tour visiting the Kirari-Fujimi Hall (Saitama Prefecture), the Fukuoka City Foundation for the Promotion of the Arts and Culture (Fukuoka), the Kani Public Arts Center Ala (Gifu) and Biwako Hall (Shiga).
www.setagaya-ac.or.jp

The Chekhov International Theatre Festival (Russia)
Project Manager: Galina Kolosova, Programme director.
The prestigious Chekhov International Theatre Festival, Russia's largest international theatre festival, will co-produce an Andersen-inspired performance with the Children's Theatre Festival to be featured in the town of Svendborg and the County of West Zealand. The performance will be directed by the celebrated young director Olga Subbotina. The script will be by playwright Xenia Dragunskaya.
www.chekhovfest.ru

The Silamiut Theatre (Greenland)
Project Manager: Rassi Thygesen and Estrella Mølgaard.
The Silamiut Theatre, the only professional theatre on Greenland, has toured the West Greenland coast with a performance of "The Little Matchgirl". The performance is a revival of a very successful stage adaptation of the fairytale from 2003. The performance will be staged in Denmark during the Andersen bicentenary.
www.silamiut.gl

Lenz Rifrazioni (Italy)
The Italian theatre Lenz Rifrazioni will stage Andersen's fairytales "The Red Shoes" and "The Little Mermaid" as Greek tragedies in the tradition of "Iphigenia" and "Oedipus", reflecting the themes 'desire', 'mutation', and 'transcendence'. The fairytales will be adapted by Francesco Petitto. The performance will be directed by Maria Federica Maestri, and the music will be composed by Andrea Azzali.
"Scarpette Rosse" (The Red Shoes) will be performed 17 - 26 June 2005 
"Sirenetta" (The Little Mermaid) 7 and 8 October 2005.
www.lenzrifrazioni.it

Under Byen / Teater Katapult
The Aarhus-based theatre group Under Byen has forged alliance with both the largest and smallest theatre stages in town - Teater Katapult and Aarhus Theatre - in staging Hans Christian Andersen's fairytale "The Shadow". The performance will be staged as a combined play, concert and event. The show will start as an ordinary play but amidst the performance, the audience will follow the Shadow and the Scholar into town. The story continues via earphones distributed to the audience while actors and extras move around the urban environment. The performance will be crowned with a concert at Aarhus Theatre's main stage.
www.katapult.dk  / www.underbyen.dk