Mali princ

Director's note

Our planet, blessed with springs, mountains, oceans and forests, with roses, sheep, foxes and even snakes, is inhabited by serious people. They rush, count, worry, and, burdened as they are, forget the things you can’t see with the naked eye, the very things that give life meaning — love, tenderness, imagination and play. Children know this best. So do those grown-ups who are lucky enough to spend a lot of time with children — and enjoy it. These are the adults who can still recognize an elephant inside a boa constrictor and hear the mischievous giggle of the stars on a clear night. They’re rare, but that isn’t the worst of it. The real misfortune of our time is that children are forgetting how to be simply children.

In our production, which we created patiently and with devotion over a long time, we tried to make sure all of us understood as deeply as possible the work we chose to share with the audience. It isn’t a simple story. My first memories of “The Little Prince,” as a child who learned to read long before starting school, are uneasy ones. I was disturbed by the fact that the Little Prince not only dies at the end, but goes to his death willingly, and I found it unfair to present that to me as his return home. Back then, death was a terrifying thing for me; a child can’t quite grasp the concept of finality. We had to rethink how to approach that, and the discomfort it brings. That isn’t the only episode in the book that puzzled us. Thankfully, the space of our play was open and comfortable enough for us to talk — and often philosophize — about truly serious things. How much Mia, Dunja, Ksenija, Jovana and I learned from the young performers — and not just us! Damjan and Mateja and Željka and Nataša and Olja, and everyone lucky enough to wander into our games, did too. In each of the children and young people you’ll see on stage, there’s a Little Prince or a Little Princess crouching within — loyal, fearless, and curious. We hope the audience will remember our play the way the Pilot remembered meeting the Little Prince in the Sahara, and that they’ll tell the story of us for a long time to many friends.
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