Season break until september 21, 2023
The Puppet Theater is expected to return to the European Hansemuseum from September 21, 2023. We will give you early notice of planned performances of the Museum’s puppet theater and exhibitions through the KOLK 17 newsletter.
We look forward to seeing you in 2023!
Review
Enjoy puppet theater open air
on July 1st and 2nd in the churchyard of St. Petri Lübeck
It should be an experience for the whole family – the two-day open-air puppet theater festival in the churchyard of St. Petri in the old town of Lübeck. From children’s thrillers to fairy tales, there were five different plays and a “Roll-Act” along the Obertrave on July 1st and 2nd. Christoph Buchfink from Göttingen did not sweep across the water with his “Rollenden Piratenkogge” but through the streets and presents puppet theater to go.
The audience would certainly like to linger in front of the stage in the churchyard of St. Petri, where on Saturday from 11 a.m. Petra Albersmann from Hamburg looked for the “Rollschuhdieb”, the Niridu theater played “Fabian, das bunte Schaf” and the Tandera theater “Frieda und Frosch”. On Sunday, Tandera opened the program at 11 a.m. with “Ratzenspatz”, followed by Sabine Zinnecker and the “Froschkönig”. At the end there was a reunion with the “Rollschuhdieb”.
All plays were suitable for puppet theater fans from the age of four and were admission free. The quiet, green churchyard with a view of St. Petri, the old town and the KOLK 17 Puppet Theater & Museum, which is built in the immediate vicinity, offered a magical ambience.
Review
PERFORMANCES 2022
Shasha Li | 4 June 2022 | 11:00 CEST
Lao Mei Chun Xiang
Film screening followed by an artist Q&A:
Documentary research of the Chinese puppeteer and artist Li Shasha: As a starting point for the search, Li Shasha took a name: “Lao Mei Chun Xiang” (Old Plum Blossom Spring Fragrance), embroidered on a theater curtain in the KOLK 17 collection. In the city of Chaozhou, she finds what she is looking for. From the clay mold to the finished painted head, through the intricately embroidered robes to the wooden, expressively moving bodies, Li Shasha follows the elaborate process of creating the puppets. Her conversations with the people who make the puppets and play them today also restore a vivid contemporary presence to the venerable puppets in the museum’s collection (Original language version with subtitles)
Review
Performances 2022
Momo Ekissi | 3 April 2022 | 11:00 CEST
Das Treffen der Ahnen
(THE MEETING OF THE ANCESTORS)
Film screening followed by artist talk:
The museum depot as a sacred grove? The puppets in the depot of KOLK 17 have called and many guests have accepted the invitation. The question “Who is speaking?” will be discussed. And is this now a museum depot, when puppets actually live in the Bois sacré, the sacred grove? What do moving puppets from Mali, hand puppets from Togo, but also Sicilian rod marionettes, and hand puppets from China, tell us? What knowledge do we all bring with us? What languages do we speak? In an improvised theater space, under the leadership of director and performer Momo Ekissi, characters and performers come together in a carefully touching, poetic performance and begin to sing, dance and tell stories together.
Yacouba Magassouba | 23 April 2022 | 18:00 CEST
La Fête au Village
Film screening followed by Artist Q&A:
“Raise the curtain!” on Mali’s wildlife. With his company NAMA, director and puppeteer Yacouba Magassouba developed the theater piece “La Fête au Village” (The Village Festival) in the summer of 2021, in which puppets originating in Mali and drawn from the KOLK 17 collection are taken up and reinterpreted. The puppets, the expressive dance ensemble as well as music and song result in an impressive performance under the open sky in Bamako. The puppet spectacle also provides an insight into the experimental working methods of the NAMA company, which combines various play and dance techniques and integrates contemporary elements and themes into the puppet and costume design (Original language version with subtitles)
KOLK 17 offers entertainment for all of the highest artistic level
KOLK 17 offers events for a diverse audience. The productions of the different types of puppet and object theatre are based on visual aesthetics and an artistic animation process. They tackle the traditions and also current events in society. KOLK 17 is a versatile place of creative, cultural education that enchants its visitors in both exhibitions and performances.
Productions for adults
Kobalt Puppet Theatre Lübeck
Cherry-picking Shakespeare
Elizabeth I, Queen of England, celebrates her 66th birthday – grumpy: not fond of her advancing years. At least there are presents, but one present is missing amongst them all… Sir Archibald, former lover – now more of a wine barrel – , unveils a large round cherry cake. Under the icing, however, he hides the old den of iniquity: the Globe Theatre “in miniature”.
Kobalt Puppet Theatre Lübeck
Rungholts honour
Murder in Lübeck around 1390 – who benefits from the death of a stranger? Councilor Rungholt investigates!
In the “Queen of the Hanseatic League” the body of a southern stranger is pulled out of the river Trave. Unexpectedly, the brusque patrician Rungholt finds himself in a sinister plot: his merchant apprentice is to go to the gallows as a murderer?!
Only a few days remain to prove his innocence. Stubbornly and against all odds including the opposition of the High Council of Lübeck, Rungholt follows the trail and almost loses everything: his honour, his life – and his beloved daughter Mirke!
Research
Researh-project:
puppet & microcamera
How much creative perfection can the analogue ‘artificial’ theatre puppet tolerate in digital projections on stage? Is it possible to amalgamate the different perceptual processes of cinematic and puppet theatre images for the audience in an equal way? With puppet play and projection of live camera images onto surfaces, objects, materials, masks, etc., the interdisciplinary ensemble develops categories, practical tips and visions for theatre, aesthetics and future joint productions.
Kobalt Puppet Theatre Lübeck
The rider on the white horse
A genius grows up in a barren North Frisian landscape: Hauke Haien wants to realise his vision of a new dike in a fearful, bigoted community. But in his ambition he underestimates the power of the irrational; only his little daughter repeatedly wrests human warmth from him. The construction of the dyke is catastrophically delayed …
In Storm’s last novella, dense language and expressive images enter into a magnificent combination, which we explore with puppets, projections and musical collages.
Kobalt Puppet Theatre Lübeck
LINE 1
West Berlin in the 1980s: A young runaway from the provinces ends up at Zoo station in search of her “Prince Charming”, a Berlin rock musician. On underground line 1 she encounters an extremely lively range of typical city dwellers and their individual destinies: punks and dealers, people tired of life, alcoholics, narrow-minded conservatives, the unemployed, widows, fare dodgers, teenagers, dreamers … She succumbs to the subterranean charm of the colourful city.
KOBALT Figure Theatre Lübeck
In the White Horse
Love stories and mix-ups at the Wolfgangsee, where Berliners, instead of going to the Baltic Sea, “are funny” in the pouring rain of the Salzkammergut. Tourists are cheekily taken for a ride. Finally a reunion with the beautiful Sigismund, with the eternally grumbling factory owner Giesecke, the lisping Klärchen, … and with the singing head-waiter Leopold, who persistently pines for the virtuous landlady!
It’s a quirky reunion that revisits the cabaret flair of the 1920s. The best-known “Silver Operetta” by Ralph Benatzky (1884-1957) is brought to life with two actors, ten singing marionettes, a cowshed, thunder and lightning.
Kolk 17 is Puppet Theatre and Museum
Have you seen our exhibitions?
Kolk 17 devotes itself to puppet theatre in all it’s many facets.
Productions for the whole family
Kobalt Puppet Theatre Lübeck
Sleeping Beauty
If the last fairy’s gift is a spindle in a castle turret, what do the other fairies’ gifts look like? Do they also have rooms? Is it even possible to understand fairy wishes?
With the kitchen boy Oskar, Rose (the original name for Sleeping Beauty is Briar Rose) experiences a cheerful, cheeky and sheltered girlhood until she falls asleep beside the merrily dancing spindle. The rose hedge guards the 100-year-old sleep. Curiously, the ‘right prince at the right time’ wanders through the quiet castle …
Kobalt Puppet Theatre Lübeck
Troll alarm in the Elk forest
Emil the Elk and his best friend Hugo the Troll live together in their forest. While the good-natured Emil is completely content, the lively Hugo wants a house – a real home!
Hugo the Troll can hardly believe it when he finds the perfect house. A house of his own complete with curtains! He is proud and overjoyed and makes his joy plain, loudly and wildly clear. A real troll alarm!… thinks Emil.
The little dog Fips, who often comes to visit them, also admires the house. But suddenly Paulina appears – the troll maiden sets the cat amongst the forest dwellers …
Kobalt Puppet Theatre Lübeck
The Princess and the Pea
Heinrich the Rooster and Karlotta the hen look out at their crazy chicken yard from the royal curtain rod: A girl stands in front of the gate in the middle of the rain – all alone, soaking-wet and carefree – and the people don’t realise that she is a real princess!
And then there’s the thick pile of mattresses. Fortunately, a pea plays the leading role – a pea that makes your mouth water.
A puppet show about departure, courage and first love with lots of pillows, two hungry chickens and a pea.
Contact
KOLK 17
Puppet theatre & Museum
KOLK 17 gGmbH
Figurentheater & Museum
Possehl-Haus
Beckergrube 38-52
23552 Lübeck
Contact
Puppet Theatre Mobile Office
TheaterFigurenMobil
Kirchhof St. Petri
23552 Lübeck
Opening Times
Mon and Sun: closed
Tue - Sat: 14:00 - 17:00
Executive Director,
Museum Director
Dr. Antonia Napp
museum@kolk17.de
Puppet Theatre Director
Stephan Schlafke
theater@kolk17.de
Media relations
Janin Thies
janin.thies@kolk17.de