Premiere – May 30, 2019

A strange message from another planet is based on a short story from the book Fairy tales by Hermann Hesse. Those who know his works will probably sense that the fairy tales are of a different kind from what we imagine. Most of all, they are not meant for children to read. They are dedicated to adults, however, by their form and length, they are suitable for bedtime reading without being afraid that you might not understand something (which, when reading Hesse, may happen quite often). Yet, at the same time, they offer very strong messages, so strong at times, that it is not so easy to read them at bedtime. Because falling asleep with the feeling that „we are so nuts indeed“ is not really ideal. Linking relatively readable allegories with a strong critical message, Hesse often balances on the verge of morality, which he compensates for by a distinctly poetic text.
We tried to preserve a lot of this poetry during the production in order to avoid moralizing, but on the other hand, our times may deserve a bit of moralizing. In the short story, there are two worlds- two planets standing in contrast. One is a utopian world, ruled by love, belonging and fun, and the other is a planet full of suffering. Our production tries to portray the utopian world mainly through humour and exaggeration, and the second – the world of suffering- tries to resemble our reality as much as possible. In contrast to the short story, instead of the war theme, we have rather emphasized the motives of individual greed and the absurdity of human behaviour as a whole. But like the author, we have also left the space for hope and belief that there is a seed of soul sleeping inside us.