Amal Choucri Catta listens to invisible hands Khakassian National Puppet Theatre, "Skazka", Siberia, presenting a puppet fantasy about Pushkin's "Fisherman and the fish". Venues: Main Hall, Cairo Opera House, 4-6 April, 11am and 8pm, and Sayed Darwish Theatre, Alexandria, 2 and 3 April, 11am and 8pm. Once upon a time there was an old fisherman who lived with his old wife in a very old hut beside the Caspian Sea. They were a poor, though happy couple, singing merry tunes while the husband played with his dog and the wife knitted a new sweater. But as fate would have it, their bliss was bound to be dimmed by a series of misfortunate temptations. One day, as the fisherman was sitting in his boat, waiting for the fish to swim into his net, he suddenly realised he had caught a giant turbot, who came up to him asking to be set free. "I am not a fish," he said, "I am a prince doomed to spend many years in the oceans: my skin is impalatable, my flesh inedible and you will not enjoy eating me for lunch. I therefore beg of you to set me free and to throw me back into the sea." The old man had never heard a talking fish before: shocked and scared, he threw the turbot back into the sea and hurried home to tell his wife of his misfortune. The old woman, however, was not as easily perturbed as her husband. Realising they had come across a real genie, she told him to return to the sea, call the fish and ask him to furnish them with a big house, a garden and lots of comfort. The old man reluctantly obeyed and the turbot fulfilled his wife's wish. The woman, however, was not satisfied: ambitious, greedy and unable to resist temptation, she asked for a palace and then for a kingdom, and as she grew wealthier and mightier, her old husband grew more languid and feeble with every passing day. In the meantime, the turbot was granting the wife everything she asked for: the palace, the kingdom, an empire, and when she asked to rule over the whole world, he even granted her that. But each time the old fisherman took his boat to meet the turbot, the waters grew darker, the weather nastier and the sea stormier. Finally his wife, who had grown bitter and harsh and who did not sing nor dance any more, asked to have power over the entire universe, over all the suns and the moons, all the constellations in the unknown dark spaces. That was when the turbot laughed, telling her husband to go home. However, when the fisherman arrived at his residence, all palaces and riches had disappeared and he found himself in front of his old hut with his wife joyfully knitting a new sweater and his dog showing him the young puppies. He was surprised, though delighted to see that his wife had understood that happiness was not to be found in riches and power, but in the little things of life; in peace of mind and work well done, that can turn every day into a paradise. Henceforth the old couple never stopped singing and dancing, thanking the good Lord for the sun and the see and the beautiful landscapes around them. As for the turbot, it disappeared in the deep blue waters and was never seen again. That was a brief summary of one of the numerous versions of Russia's Alexander Sergueyevitch Pushkin's Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish, originally titled Skazka o rybake i rykbe, written around 1833, while on a trip through the Russian provinces. A similar story can however be found in Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm's German Tales for Children, written in 1812, as well as among other authors of the time. Pushkin and the Grimm brothers, just as the Frenchman Charles Perrault in 1697, or the great Dane, Hans Christian Andersen, around 1850, have all been inspired by old European tales, circulating for ages in local folklore, and popular among children to this very day. Last week, at Cairo Opera's Main Hall, the Khakassian National Puppet Theatre Skazka, from Abakan in Siberia, granted Cairene audiences a puppet show with a difference: the two solitary stars of the spectacle, the old fisherman and his wife, were not stringed, but prompted by 10 invisible hands. They had their very own mini-theatre placed centre-stage, while cameras projected the performance, large- sized, on two screens posted on either side of the main stage. The viewers were thus given the possibility to appreciate the remarkable movements of the puppets. Though not one word was uttered, the story was fluently narrated, accompanied by impressive sound and musical effects and surprisingly eloquent gestures of the hands. The puppets were not beautiful -- with their oversized heads and hands and their small bodies, they rather looked like midgets with a saucy, petulant air about them. They were, however, quite pretty and amusing and one could not help but love them. Furthermore, the lighting, the design and directing of the show were remarkable, the sequences on the dark, stormy sea were particularly convincing, and the joy of the old couple, when discovering their new-found happiness in the old hut after having gone through all kinds of misfortunate temptations, was extremely delightful. The old fisherman and his wife were mostly funny and pleasant in their general demeanour; both were excellent performers, their respective interpretations exceptionally convincing. Colours were bright and the dogs quite frolicsome. Founded in December 1979, the Khakassian National Puppet Theatre "Skazka" produced over 150 shows for children and adults during the first 25 years, inspired by the works of different European authors. The company participated in many prestigious national and international festivals, and has been awarded a number of prizes, such as the first prize of "Passages" 2000 and 2001 in Nancy, France, the International Puppet Festival in Nancy in 2004, the International Theatre Festival in Adana, Turkey in 2004, and numerous prizes in Russia. The second part of the spectacle at Cairo Opera's Main Hall was dedicated to songs and music performed on traditional instruments, taking the audience to vast Siberian spaces, while listening to folkloric tunes from Khakassia and watching views of Siberia projected on one of the huge screens. Twenty-five thousand years ago Siberia had already close relations with ancient oriental prehistoric sites in India, Persia and China. Protected by the ice, a number of well-preserved giant mammoths have been discovered, while statuettes carved in mammoth ivory, and a quantity of dolmens, menhirs and cromlechs strewn along the landscape, are to this day eloquent witnesses of the antiquity of Siberian culture. The songs the trio sang on Cairo's stage were quite melodious, the singers' voices lovely and their performance very interesting. The entire evening was rather reminiscent of Eskimo culture, with multicoloured ribbons and feathers and a visible tendency towards superstition, such as one would encounter in Northern Canada and in Greenland. Adults and children thoroughly enjoyed the programme, though many did regret the sudden cancellation of certain performances and the last-minute changes of the timetable of others.
