stage performances | Divadlo Š.E.M.

stage performaces

In creating stage works at the Š.E.M. company, we emphasize all components with a significant visual and authorial contribution from the entire production team. Our stage works are set in theatrical or non-theatrical spaces with lighting design and feature live or reproduced musical elements.

PALCULIENKA | THUMBELINA

Puppet excursion into the microcosm of a story about birth, searching, and finding oneself. It's about how sometimes the tiny ones get lost in the big world, where we encounter the cold-bloodedness of frogs or the fleetingness of beetles. And also about how our thoughts, blind as moles, imprison us underground when we search for a place to belong.

performance for children aged 6+

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The puppet performance Thumbelina is inspired by the eponymous tale by the world-renowned writer and storyteller H. C. Andersen. The creators of the performance choose the theme of feeling small in a big world and searching for a place to belong from the story. Thumbelina is born into a museum where old exhibits and their inhabitants (frogs, beetles, a mouse, and a mole) come to life. Each of them wants Thumbelina for themselves. However, Thumbelina is just seen as an object to satisfy their needs (a toy, decoration, commodity, doll). If Thumbelina wants to be a living being and not an object, she must look at the world from a different perspective.

The performance offers a tour of the museum, where the story of Thumbelina comes to life as a metaphor for everyone, big or small, who has ever felt lost or small and sought a way to grow again.

Autor: Hans Christian Andersen

Libreto: Veronika Trokšiarová

Scenography: Michaela Urbanová

Music: collective

Graphic: Michaela Urbanová

Production: Veronika Trokšiarová

Direction and dramaturgy: Veronika Trokšiarová

Cast: Michaela Dzamková, Ľuboš Janák,

Alžbeta Palanová, René Sorád, Patrícia Stehelová

Premiere: 31. mája 2021

Duration: 45 min.

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LESOM | Through the Woods

Original puppet immersive performance with elements of horror.

Performance for people aged 15+

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The performance "Through the Woods" draws from the personal experiences of its creators in facing fear. It is an exploration of the private (dark) forest, where everyone has encountered Phobos at least once. Phobos (from Greek mythology) did not always appear the same, but according to legends, he often unexpectedly appeared in a form that instilled fear. The forest, as the central setting from familiar traditional stories, is the home of Phobos in every possible form. The performance primarily explores the forms we have known since childhood (the Bogeyman, the Witch, Hansel and Gretel, the Wolf).

With the passage of time, these (harmless) fears may have accumulated layers of experiences and come to the surface. We stand before the dark forest and anything can be encountered. The question remains, what should we do? Run away, fight, or enter the forest, find the true form of Phobos, and make peace with fear.

Subject and texts: collective

Scenography: Michaela Zajačková, Michaela Urbanová

Music: Júlia Šimková

Graphic: Michaela Zajačková

Production: Veronika Trokšiarová

Direction and dramaturgy: Veronika Trokšiarová

Cast: Michaela Dzamková, Ľuboš Janák, René Sorád

Premiere: 7. septembra 2021

Duration: 50 min.

The project supported using public funding by Slovak Arts Council

The project was created in collaboration with the Cultural Center Dúbravka.

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INFERNO:21

An exhibition of contemporary values, a video mapping of human despair, dramatic situations of everyday life, and music imagining a possible future for human relationships.

performance for audience aged 15+

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The word "hell" likely evokes negative emotions in everyone: anxiety, suffering, torment, fire, agony, loss of soul. But what does hell look like in the 21st century? And how do we escape from it? Is it merely an excess - a leftover at the end of history that we can only laugh at? Or is descending into it an essential part of the journey out? And where does it all end?

INFERNO:21 explores the dark aspects of human nature, moral questions, and the consequences of our decisions. It may touch on themes of guilt, punishment, loss, and the search for inner meaning.

This experimental interdisciplinary work examines the existence of the contemporary individual - the self - trapped in the deepest hell. In mythologies, heroes, poets, philosophers, and demigods enter the underworld to amend their fate. Today, anyone can enter the underworld because it is accessible. It is a fictional, highly emotional space within our minds. This is the INFERNO of the 21st century - a vernissage of contemporary values, a video mapping of human despair, dramatic situations of everyday life, and the music of a possible future for human relationships.