Escape room is a popular game whose goal is to get out of a locked room at a certain time by solving a series of logically related tasks as a team. Popularized around the world in 2010, these games are set in a variety of fictional spaces, such as prison cells or space stations.

Our ESC Room is located in an ordinary young person’s room where the way out is merely an entrance into the virtual world. In order to enter, it is necessary to go through a registration process. The system does not accept diversity so the procedure is the same for everyone, and unification is not only welcome, but also mandatory.The three dancers represent one character. They are all one and the same. We don’t know who is the original. By deleting and retrieving the identity, we enable exit, i.e. entry into the virtual space. By seeking an exit from the virtual room, they move away from the reality in which the real exit is hidden. Intended for young people, this play deals with the topic of computer games, which is recognized as a problem of their generation. It is the generation that experienced its greatest fascinations and discoveries in a sitting position – in front of the screen. In the desire to bring contemporary dance art closer to young people, and through a topic that is close to them, we open questions about the consequences of this replacement of space for play and socializing.

What happens when instead of going out (into the real world), we step into the virtual world? When does the game become dangerous? What is the social environment and what is the illusion of the social environment? And how to recognize the right way out of the room?

The performance of the play ESC Room is realized within the project “Gyroscope – civil-public partnership in the management of cultural spaces in Rijeka”.

Plesni zbirkus opens with a mix of short clown and pantomime performances accompanied by a professional clown guidance of the opening. The performers are also clown doctors. On this occasion, we will briefly present RED NOSES clown doctors and their mission -to bring back a sense of joy, happiness and optimism to people in difficult situations through the art of professional clowning, humor and laughter. Fun at the opening is indispensable, and the cause is noble – visitors’ donations will be paid to the organization RED NOSES clown doctors and thus support their work.

Presentation of the Red Noses organization: Nataša Tepša Budija
Performers: Petra Bokić, Marijana Matoković, Frane Meden
Presenters: Nina Sabo, Nives Soldičić
The entire income from the visitors’ donations will be paid to the account of the organization RED NOSES clown doctors and thus support their work. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts and red noses :o)

Opening programme

PRESENTATION OF RED NOSES CLOWN DOCTORS Nataša Tepša Budija

RED NOSES clown doctors is an organization that has been continuously active in Croatia since 2010 and is part of the international organization RED NOSES Clowndoctors International. In Croatia, they have cooperated with 14 hospitals from Zagreb, Rijeka, Split, Zadar, Osijek, Vukovar, and Vinkovci. Clown doctors are artists, specially trained to work with sick children and the infirm, and are educated in Vienna at the International School of Humor and on trainings in the field of psychology, pedagogy and sociology. Their greatest wish is for the clown to be present in Croatian hospitals every day for every child and to create a healthier and more humane society that contributes to the well-being of all people, kindling the joy of life, especially in difficult moments.
More info: www.crveninosovi.hr
Duration: 10 min

ULA KOMIK

Behind the clown name Ula Komik, hides Marijana Matoković. Actress, puppeteer, director, clown and clown doctor from the organisation RED NOSES clown doctors. She graduated in acting and puppetry in Osijek, but in recent years she has been specialising in clown expression. She performs throughout Croatia. She is also the artistic director of the CIRKUS Punkt Theater – a place that connects theater and circus.

Act 1: The Painter
How hard is it to paint a picture? What kind of suffering do artists go through before they finish their artwork? This is a clown-mime point dedicated to all artists who go through the most difficult adversities for their results.
Duration: 7 minutes

Act 2: Where did the voice go?
Ula Komik is a woman with many talents. He likes to perform, loves to sing. Her voice is a very lively thing, sometimes it hides, sometimes it runs away, but it is always somewhere around.
Duration: 5 minutes

MRS. MILICA

In the real world, Mrs Milica is Petra Bokić – an actress, puppeteer, circus artist, who has been living, studying and creating in these artistic fields for the last 20 years of her life – which is exactly half of her life. For the last ten years she has been active in RED NOSES clown doctors, as a certified clown doctor and assistant in the art department. She is a member of the Cirkorama Association, which promotes and creates contemporary circus in this part of Europe. She is also one of the founders of the Tripstih Shadow Theatre, a drama and circus pedagogue and a member of HDDU (Croatian Association of Drama Artists).

Act 1: Ode to Madness
A clown act of a musical character in which a top rubber hen player performs an ode to madness.
Duration: 5 minutes

Act 2: An encounter that happened strangely and invisibly
The encounter leaves the question of whether it happened at all. It’s a clown song about how the essential is invisible to the eye.
Duration: 7 minutes

CLOWN FRANKETO

Clown Franket is embodied by actor, clown and pantomime artist Frane Meden. His journey to physical theatre began at the DR Inat Theatre in Pula, with which he was a guest at festivals on three continents. He researched his puppetry experience at MILK, Pula, after which he enrolled at the Ecole Internationale du theatre J. Lecoq in Paris and at the same time he trained the corporate mime at the Theatre du Mimodrame and at the Atelier de Belleville. He is the founder of Plavi oblik, a theatre workshop without words. He is also a member of the Ensemble Kontese by Miro Ungar and a clown doctor in the organization RED NOSES clown doctors.

Act 1: Nose as pride
It’s not nice to eat alone, especially candies. But how to divide a candy when there is only one? Maybe eat secretly and hope no one sees you.
Duration: 10 minutes

Act 2: Balloon
The balloon should be inflated and tied down. When we inflate it too much, problems can occur …
Duration: 6 minutes

MODERATORS: LILA & VERNA

You are guided through the programme by crazy and charming hosts Lila and Verna. Lila is calm and nice, and Verna is everything calm! Verna and Lila have been sisters from an early age. Verna grows carrots, Lila grows cotton candy. In addition to the garden, they inherited a nose from grandmother Slavka that opens all doors. Verna loves heights, Lila slopes. They are so different that even Grandma Slavko doesn’t recognize them. When they grow up they will open their own circus. Lila will sell cotton candy and sew costumes, and Verna will do everything else.

Visiting performances is realized within the project “Gyroscope – civil-public partnership in the management of cultural premises in Rijeka”.

Plastika fantastika is a theatrical cartoon with elements of fantasy, an educational and interactive play intended for late preschool and early elementary school age. In the play, three female superheroes come to save the Earth from plastic pollution after plastic bags have already become dangerous for the entire galaxy. On their journey around the Earth, they will meet various animals, but along the way they will learn that humans can help them the most. Scenography and props are all made of plastic materials that would be declared waste in another scenario.

The play turns into a workshop in which the artist Tanja Blašković (Imagine Plastic and Ri: Use center Rijeka) acts as a superhero from Earth and teaches our young audience how to make a school pencil case out of plastic bags.

The artistic organization Igralke Collective consists of graduates of the Acting and Media Studies from the Academy of Applied Arts in Rijeka in the class of Rade Šerbedžija and Lenka Udovički. Members of the organisation are Vanda Velagić, Anja Sabol, Ana Marija Brđanović and Sendi Bakotić. These professional actresses have a background in the faculties of comparative literature, philology, social anthropology, cultural management and speech-language pathology, and carry out their own projects independently, as authors and as producers. As a women’s collective, they nurture a feminist, non-hierarchical structure of work organization, fighting for the equality of all vulnerable groups, and they are ecologically aware of the technical and artistic prerequisits of each performance. They explore new performance practices that question the direct and reciprocal relationship between art and community. “Plastika fantastika” is their first project, while the next one (satirical-documentary play “Grandmothers”) will have its premiere in December as part of the official program of Rijeka 2020 – European Capital of Culture.

Performers: Vanda Velagić, Anja Sabol, Ana Marija Brđanović and Sandi Bakotić
The guest performance is realized within the project “Gyroscope – civil-public partnership in the management of cultural premises in Rijeka”.

Financial support: Department of Culture of the City of Rijeka, Primorje-Gorski Kotar County
Support: SU Molekula, Ri: Use center Rijeka

Kamishibai is a mixture of visual arts, literature, and theatre. When literally translated, kamishibai means “paper play.” In Japanese, Kami is paper, and Shibai is a play. It is a small wooden theater, in fact just an empty wooden box with a door and it contains large illustrations that alternate at a given pace while the narrator tells the story. Kids will first listen to traditional Japanese kamishibai stories such as “The Mouse’s Wedding”, “A three centimetres Samurai” or “The Three Magic Charms” and afterwards participate in an interdisciplinary workshop where they will design, produce and then perform their own kamishibai play. With the help of the workshop leader, they will devise a topic, define characters i.e. pictures and create the play. For the second year in a row, the workshop has been held with great success as part of the “Backpack (full) of culture” programme of the Ministry of Culture.

Kozlići Association is the result of many years of work by its founders. They have participated in various cultural organizations and in numerous art events where different and innovative projects for children and youth have been the focus of their interest. Kozlići performed at numerous events, for example “Andersen’s Night” in the Public Library and Reading Room Daruvar, BESA Festival on Vis and “Children’s Week” on Čiovo, and for four years in a row they have performed at the prestigious Ogulin Fairy Tales Festival. Kozlići are regular guests of the Vox Feminae festival in Zagreb, for which they prepare their own Kamishibai stories illustrated by academic artists. Kozlići is the first Croatian member of the renowned international society IKAJA – The International Kamishibai Association of Japan with headquarters in Tokyo. They established cooperation with the Association of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing of the City of Zagreb and the Croatian Society of Interpreters and Translators of Sign Language for the Deaf, which resulted in a cycle of Kamishibai stories in sign language.

Performed by: Vera Paff and Relja Dušek
The guest performance is realized within the project “Gyroscope – civil-public partnership in the management of cultural premises in Rijeka”.

The pond where Dabac The Frog lives has dried up. Seeking water, and hiding from storks and other dangers, the frog comes to Professor Fumfstein’s laboratory, at a time when an experiment is being prepared to paint all the world’s waters in beautiful fluorescent shades: the sea in orange, lakes and rivers in pink, and drinking water in yellow-green, the color of frog ponds. The Story That Holds Water was created in the spirit of a clown, and in addition to gags, it also contains juggling and musical moments. It talks about the numerous benefits of water for the health of living beings. Throughout the game, children also learn about the importance of water in our bodies and on the planet Earth, as well as about chemistry, water in nature, state of matter and the importance of keeping drinking water clean.

Directors / Scenographers / Costume Designers – Nikola Dabac, Zoran Vukić
Actors: Nikola Dabac, Zoran Vukić
Text by: Irena Kolar – Vudrag
Poster by: Bojan Mršić
Music by: Nikola Dabac; Text by: Irena Kolar Vudrag
Production: Antuntun

Nikola Dabac and Zoran Vukić have been involved in acting and music for most of their working lives. For many years they have been collaborating with each other through various projects. In the Association “Antuntun” they have joint plays “Between Extremes” (2011) and “The Story That Holds Water” (2014) which they successfully perform in theaters, festivals and various events, but also in schools and kindergartens. By the way, these two are also known as clown doctors. They perform on the street, in hospitals where they make little patients laugh, and sometimes also in the theatre. We suspect that they are not only dealing with dispelling boredom, but also dispelling worries and sadness.

The guest performance is realized within the project “Gyroscope – civil-public partnership in the management of cultural premises in Rijeka”.

The (Un)ordinary Story is a fantastic fairy tale that begins in an unusual forest, in the magical world of strange creatures. A long, long time ago, when darkness set foot into the forest, the forest petrified. One day a little girl got lost in that forest … and that’s where the (un)ordinary story began.

Authors / directors: Manuela Rossi / Korana Daić
Co-produced by SvilArt Aereal Studio and The Magician’s Hat Association
Costume design: Korana Daić, Mia Krneta, Manuela Rossi
Scenography: Ozmali
Lighting design: Domagoj Sojć
Performers: young participants of the silk workshop (8 to 14 years old): Asja Burba, Zora Cvijanović, Luna Gotal, Matia Sanković and Franka Skoko. The role of the Black Queen is played by Korana Daić.

The Magician’s Hat Association was founded in 2004 with the aim of promoting and developing contemporary performance arts, primarily contemporary circus and street performing arts. The association organizes a number of events: plays, lectures, workshops, residency programs, in Pula and Istria, such as: Street Wizards Fetival, Cirkobalkana Festival, Mesmerized by New Circus, Circus on the Island. The association’s educational programs are intended for beginners, both children and adults, and for the professional training of circus artists.

The Forest of Sounds is a musical-puppet fairytale for children. It is a sound “forest” theatre where the forest plats, tree branches, roots and forest fruits become musical instruments, puppets or parts of stage set.The main thread of the performance is the tale of a hedgehog and his best friend the bear based on children’s tales from Russian author Sergei Kozlov (1940 – 2010). The hedgehog and the bear live in the forest and explore it together; they meet other animals, observe nature and the changes the seasons bring to their forest.

Through their relationship, the tales reveal topics such as friendship, trust, loneliness, tolerance, sensitivity, bewilderment for the world that surrounds them and the joy of life. Together with the hedgehog and the bear the children set for an adventure in lessons of life, its troubles, secrets and joys.

Concept, directed and music by Peter Kus
Text by Ajda Rooss (inspired by stories by Sergey Kozlov)
Art design by Kaja Avberšek
Costumes by Iztok Hrga
Light design by Borut Bučinel
Performed by Petra Kavaš, Bruno Kontrec, Gregor Hrovat, Ivan Štrok

Peter Kus is a composer, a director of puppet shows, an instrument builder and a lecturer from Ljubljana (Slovenia) who explores the area where music and theatre meet. The result are puppet-music performances and plays that have taken him to numerous international festivals and have been awarded numerous recognitions for music and originality.

Peter Kus is also a designer and the builder of original musical instruments. He designed the famous and widely praised series of exhibitions of original musical instruments “Euphonia”, presented in several cities in Slovenia. With the exhibition “Sound Garden” he was a guest in several European countries, and in 2016 at the Kortil Gallery in Rijeka.

The guest performance is realized within the project “Gyroscope – civil-public partnership in the management of cultural premises in Rijeka”.