TEATRO MATITA
alternative :: puppet :: object :: theatre
ATTENTION MOOSE!
objects and puppets with live music
A simple story tells of the communication between humans and animals and the cruelty of life, into which you can be born as a hen or a hunter. Music plays an especially important role here and acts as a device for the characterization of sounds, tightly linked to the narrator, an elk, who leads the audience through the story. Every scene features puppets made of different objects, which stimulates the imagination of the viewer and lets them experience the play on an entirely different level. While the children enjoy the rhythm, melodies, the comedy and the improvisation, the adults will recognize the tragic aspects of this story.
adults or 7+ | 45'
Author, director, stage design Matija Solce
Music Matija Solce, Stefan Hedborg
Dramaturgy Tina Glenvik
Cast Matija Solce, Filip Šebšajevič
E’BEH?
original interpretation of puppet tradition
The show builds on comical situations, and is based on the traditional Italian character of Pulcinella, who knows no authority or fear. It is a form of puppet minimalism, in which first the puppet is created from naught, then comes to life and immediately finds a partner to play with. Pulcinella comes face-to-face with characters such as the dog, and Death, but in contrast to tradition, the story finishes without a winner.
adults or 5+ | 35'
Author, director, music and performer Matija Solce
Attention moose!, Teatro Matita Archive
E’Beh?, Teatro Matita Archive
LITTLE NIGHT TALES
expressive puppets with live music
When night falls and the world of people calms down for a while from its turmoil, a writer tries to write a short story. Tired, he falls asleep and in his dreams the objects around him and the characters he has imagined come to life, and stories and tales begin to weave among them… This puppet show is aimed at all generations of viewers, featuring puppets with original animation mechanisms invented and directed by Matija Solce.
adults or 4+ | 50'
Author, puppets Matija Solce
Director Vida Cerkvenik Bren, Matija Solce
Cast Matija Solce and musician
HAPPY BONES
dark object theatre show
Bunch of bones, all collected from different parts of the world, a small coffin and a stuffed panda. Like a cheerful alchemist the puppeteer makes characters, emotions and entanglements pop out of inanimate matter. Simple bones, without using a single word, tell their stories about solitude. Who is the puppet and who is the animator? Who is dead and who is alive? Object theater in its most raw form, shows its endless possibilities. Dadaistic partiture, ironic black comedy, that every second changes the perspective of the viewer, surprises and makes you laugh. Until you realize that you are just a part of a bigger game. Game of death.
adults or 7+ | 60'
Author, music, performer Matija Solce
Director Vida Cerkvenik Bren, Matija Solce
Little Night Tales, Teatro Matita Archive
Happy Bones, Teatro Matita Archive
DOG’S LIFE
object-theatre show on life of Karel Čapek
For Dashenka, life is most dog-like when a human foot steps on her tail. But in the days before the Second World War, it was dog’s life for those who stood up to the growing force of ideology. Čapek’s playful language is translated into Dadaist images of shoeboxes and the contents of their objects that repeatedly evoke the writer’s remembrance and his fears. The object theatre is enhanced by the on-site live creation of music from random sounds, which Solce always combines in surprising ways into musical interludes.
adults or 15+ | 60'
Director, music, stage design, performer
Matija Solce
Dramaturgy Ariel Doron, Sara Evelyn Brown
BEING DON
QUICHOTTE
tragicomedy for two actors and a puppet
Puppet performance for two performers, a puppet and a bunch of unusual objects upgrades the motifs of the Cervantes’ novel and the visual poetics of the Czech master of surrealist film animation Jan Švankmaker with the personal confession of today’s creator, torn between idealism and the struggle for survival. Thus the fight with windmills is transferred into the context of a conflict between various theatre genres, as well as between material and animator, tradition and postmodernism, between artistic idealism and pragmatism, artist and society.
adults or 16+ | 60'
Music and stage design
Matija Solce
Director Vida Cerkvenik Bren, Matija Solce
Dramaturgy Miha Razdrih
Puppet Mitja Ritmanič
Cast Matija Solce, Filip Šebšajevič / Tines Špik
Dog’s Life, Teatro Matita Archive
Being don Quichotte, Teatro Matita Archive
THE HATCHET
intermedial cabaret
The versatile performers reinterpret Levstik's well-known fairy tale Martin Krpan by placing its motifs in a new context and weaving them together into a dynamic composition interwoven with the accordion, rock music, situational comedy, specific objects that are carefully crafted puppet elements and improvised passages. Intermedial puppet cabaret The Hatchet is an interactive, relaxed yet complex and socially critical performance that uniquely combines elements of alternative conceptual art and rustic comedy.
adults or 16+ | 60'
Director and music Matija Solce
Set design Larisa Kazić
Puppets Brane Solce, Sanja Fidler
Cast Miha Arh, Matija Solce, Filip Šebšajevič, Tines Špik, Miha Razdrih,
MITZIE LE CHEF
puppet sketch from a post box
Kuharica Micka is a scene taken from performance Kabaretluknja, based on Carroll's Alice in wonderland. In 2008 this show was the debut of Matija Solce as a director in Ljubljana puppet theatre. 10 years after putting it off the repertory, Kuharica Micka returns with the animator Miha Arh as a mini puppet show of Teatro Matita.
On a beautiful summer day Mitzie le chef is baking cookies for the queen of hearts. There is also a child she is babysitting who makes her job even more interesting.
adults or 4+ | 20'
Director Matija Solce
Visual design Maríanna Stránská
Cast Miha Arh
The Hatchet, Teatro Matita Archive
Mitzie le Chef, Teatro Matita Archive
HARMS’ FAULT!
nonsense theatrical puppet concert on prepared accordion
Enter Harms’ illogical machine, a contraption that smashes glass, plays symphonies, and triggers stories, incidents, and motifs from one of the last representatives of the Russian avant-garde, Harms-Šardam, Kharms, Dandan, Harmonius… or whoever. Actor, puppeteer, and musician Matija Solce, through gentle animation of soft, realistic puppets, objects, and materials, as well as through grotesque cabaret and instrumental passages, weaves a situational comedy that challenges and provokes contemporary stereotypes through the absurdity of never-ending falling grandmothers.
adults or 16+ | 55'
Author Matija Solce, Daniil Harms
Director, music, performer Matija Solce
Visual design Larisa Kazić
Sound design Ivo Gregorec Sedláče
Cast Matija Solce
Set and props Larisa Kazić, Matija Solce, Martin Neduha, Ludek Sedlaž, Ivo Gregorec Sedláček
U!-BU
a puppet–live-action dada cabaret
In Solce’s distinctive mix of acting, music, and puppetry, a team of musicians, puppeteers, and actors dismantle the world of Alfred Jarry. A grotesque portrait of society—its corruption, primitiveness, stupidity, and the fear of those in power who ceaselessly grow stronger, as well as the people’s longing for servitude—comes to life through a fusion of classical marionette “zdrekoperetta,” dadaist a cappella concert, object theatre, and merdre-poetry.
A cabaret that only shocks the audience once they return home and switch on their screens.
adults or 16+ | 60'
Author Matija Solce, Alfred Jarry
Director Matija Solce
... UPCOMING november '25
Harms’ Fault!, Teatro Matita Archive
U!-BU, Teatro Matita Future
KAR
cabaret of russian realism
During the funeral banquet, amid the clinking of glasses and the subdued strains of the mourning band, a quiet farewell gives way to fragments from the life of the departed. Through the waiter’s seemingly accidental gestures, and through the delicate interplay of music, words, and objects, she is brought back to life—along with the imagination of the guests.
Carried away by wine, they slip deeper into memory until they themselves become characters in the story of Anna Karenina.
Cabaret unfolds the drama with vibrant, primal, and original music inspired by Russian traditions.
EXIT
live folk-electronic cabaret
An empty room, a priest, a puppet, paper, toys, Andersen. Puppet cabaret
Exit is a daring harmony of llive folk and electric music, objects and materials, stories and their echoes.
In the performance, each object is assigned a specific musical role, with the intention of functioning as a sound instrument and thus as a living being. In this way, each object is given a meaning in its own composition, which is made up of fragments of motifs from Andersen’s stories. The leitmotifs are interpreted with the sounds of the objects, causing special kind of intimacy that constantly alternates with musical and cabaret pieces.
MATIJA SOLCE
object theatre beyond boundaries
Matija Solce, first Slovenian doctor of puppetry, actor, musician, director and festival organizer who is taking the puppet stage by storm with his boot and accordion. In his works he closely connects music and theater therefore his concerts often turn into interactive theater performances, or his puppet shows become musical compositions. His passion is connecting different artforms, which is why he started organizing Floating Castle Festival and Etno Histeria Orchestra, through which he connected several thousand artists, which every year build an unique area where total theatre takes place. He believes art can change society, if we let it work outside of its comfort zone.
Breaking down the “fourth wall”, “alienation effect” and rhythmisation are one of the basic principles of his theory of “theatre of illusive points”. He wants to break the stereotypes about puppet theatre and promote it as the most open theatre form. With his accordion and a coffin full of bones, he is traveling around the globe, experiencing venues as extreme as prisons, ashrams, people's bedrooms or the great halls of international festivals.sons, ashrams, people's bedrooms or big halls of international festivals.
Exit, Studio Damuza Archive
Happy Bones, Teatro Matita Archive
FEKETE SERETLEK
theatrical world-music cabaret
The group Fekete Seretlek is inspired by traditional folk song motifs from all over the world and uses them, mixes them and transforms them into new original shapes and compositions. Their spontaneous performances balance on the border between concert and theater. They have been touring Europe with their theatrical cabaret from year 2004. In their repertory they often dive into wild balkan rhythms, suddenly start singing an Icelandic anthem, proceed with traditional czech salsa and end with wild russian wals. Nevertheless, with their wide repertory and their performing skills they will make dance party on big concert stages or intimate acoustic events in a club.
accordion, vocal Matija Solce (SI)
cello, vocal Anička Bubníková (CZ/RU)
double bass, vocal Pavol Smolárik (SK)
violin, vocal Jiří N. Jelínek (CZ)
trumpet, vocal Jan Meduna (CZ)
percussions Ivo Sedláček (CZ)
TRIO KATASTROFA
scandi - balkan folk - punk
The members met back in 2009 and have since then collaborated in several different bands and projects. The trio has come up with their own genre they call Scandi-Balkan folk-punk which consists of both traditional music from Scandinavia and the Balkans and their own compositions, mixed with improvisation and a large portion of humor as well as breathtakingly fast improvisation and communication skills between the members - a genre in constant transformation. A large focus is on the traditional music they learned during their travels, tours, courses and different kinds of creative contexts and projects in different parts of European corners.
accordion, vocals Matija Solce (SI) violin, vocals Sofia Högstadius (SE) drums, vocals Stefan Hedborg (CL/SE)
Trio Katastrofa, Teatro Matita Archive
Fekete Seretlek, Teatro Matita Archive
GRAD GORI! (SI)
musical tales
The band Grad gori!, wich means ‘Castle on Fire!’, retain fondness for combining disparate styles, mixing folklore with a distinctly pop sensibility. The result is a kind of “castle” music that presents Slovenian, Swedish and Czech folk stories of princesses kidnapped, cursed or saved – the heroines of all times. But don’t worry, it’s not only romantic: there is also humour and cabaret. And despite their folkloric origin and atmosphere, the songs examine the familiar problems of our own society.
The quality of Brina Vogelnik’s sometimes boisterous, sometimes confiding voice is well served by the sensitive performances by Drnovšek and Solce on accordion, ably aided by Celarec.
voice Brina Vogelnik
accordion, backing vocal Matija Solce
violin Barja Drnovšek
percussion Blaž Celarec
LOS HOSTES
jodl-funk irish balkanica
Jodlfunk, hip hop, Irish, Balkan – groove, ragas turned reels and alpine harmonies: In intimate comradery, Claudia, Aleš and Matija move between soft, lyrical songs to heart-lifting dance tunes: a rollercoaster of inter- cultural, genre-hopping folk and original music from here, there and everywhere. Past performances have included appearances at Nekropolis Festival (CZ), Floating Castle Festival (SLO), Kultursommer Wien (AT) and Aeson Festival (IT).
violin,
accordeon, vocals Matija Solce
drums Aleš Zorec (SI)
Los Hostes, Teatro Matita Archive
vocals Claudia Schwab (AT)
(SI)
Grad Gori!, Teatro Matita Archive
LUTKOFF
alternative puppet incubator
LUTKOFF is an initiative for new alternative puppet theatre scene in Ljubljana, which would change the understanding of puppet theatre as theatre for children or theatre of dolls. Through “Lutkoff” we want to present modern art currents, which in some ways relate to puppetry more, than puppet festivals themselves. Program of Lutkoff is going to be based on international shows, masterclasses, puppet jam sessions and gatherings, which would bring together intermedial art community and influence the youth.
TEATRO MATITA
Teatro Matita was founded in 2002 and in the last year has grown into a theater that involves actors with different theatrical and musical backgrounds, capable of performing cabaret or children’s shows, but always has its specific characteristics that can be recognized from afar.
Teatro Matita focuses on expressive, original puppets as well as exploring the theatre of material and objects, ranging from the use of everyday objects as far as bones. All solo shows fit in one suitcase, on the other hand, more complex performances use the stage in an innovative way - a firetruck can become an instrument, etc. Each of these shows uses its own theatrical technique and its own theatrical language.
Teatro Matita's productions have toured internationally and have been performed at many important festivals.
matijasolce.com
FB: Teatro Matita matitatheatre@gmail.com