TRANSPORT: CONNECTING FLIGHTS. Bialystok Puppet Theatre (Poland)

Authors: Tin Grabnar and Ajda Rooss
Director and Concept Author: Tin Grabnar
Dramaturge: Ajda Rooss
Art and Set Designer: Sara Slivnik
Costume Designer: Tina Bonča
Composer and Sound Designer: Mateja Starič
Lighting Designer: Gregor Kuhar
3D Model and Figure Designer: Aleksander Andželović
Wireless Lighting System Designer: Matej Lazar
Assistants to the Art and Set Designer: Katarina Planinc and Laura Krajnc
Cast: Łucja Grzeszczyk–Żukowska and Krzysztof Bitdorf

Stage Manager: Adam Popławski and Leszek Augustynowicz
Lighting Technician: Michał Michalczuk
Sound Technician: Sebastian Truszkowski
Stage Technicians: Patryk Krzywosz, Maciej Małyszko and Maciej Matys

Puppet and Scenery Workshops: Poland: Agnieszka Łuszczewska Bogusława Borowik Inna Denysova Krzysztof Stanik Marta Lewkowska Michał Wyszkowski Monika Anna Wojniak; Slovenia: Laura Krajnc, Olga Milić, Katarina Planinc, Lorena Bukovec

Collecting, developing and preparing story material for the Performance Connecting Flights and the overall conceptual design of the Transport project: Tjaša Bertoncelj, Ana Duša, Tin Grabnar, Urša Majcen and Ajda Rooss
Project supported by the European Commission under the Creative Europe programme

Photos by: Krzysztof Bieliński

Co-production:
Lutkovno gledališče Ljubljana (Ljubljana Puppet Theatre, Slovenia)
Lutkovno gledališče Maribor (Maribor Puppet Theatre, Slovenia)
Białostocki Teatr Lalek (Bialystok Puppet Theatre, Poljska)
Eesti Noorsooteater (Estonian Theatre for Young Audiences, Estonia)
Klaipėdos lėlių teatras (Klaipėda Puppet Theatre, Lithuania)
Divadlo ALFA (Theatre ALFA, the Czech Republic)

Premiere: February 22, 2025

‘Transport: Connecting Flights’ is set in an airport – a crossroads of cultures and journeys and a microcosm of the globalised world. This transitory space weaves together unique human stories, emerging as a powerful metaphor for modern society. Initially open and welcoming, symbolising freedom and equality, it gradually reveals its darker layers. 

Does globalisation truly reduce prejudice, or does it merely mask them under a veil of political correctness?

Bialystok Puppet Theatre (pl.: Białostocki Teatr Lalek) – is an ultramodern institution, one of the most prestigious places on the cultural map of Poland and one of the best puppet scenes in the country. Bialystok Puppet Theatre is proud of his history and conscious of his tradition, and firmly looks up into the future. Almost every Bialystok Puppet Theatre’s premiere is an international production. Theatre do not resign from classical puppet techniques, but most of all experiment in search of new means of expression somewhere on the verge of form and convention. Next to stick puppets, hand puppets, rod puppets and marionettes thetre’s spectators can experience theatre filled with the latest achievements of technology – theatre uses holograms, lasers, video projections in order to discover new solutions on stage.

Director Tin Grabnar, who works across a broad range of performative and theatrical practices, is a profound investigator of contemporary puppetry art. He explores theatrical communication, tests a wide spectrum of different performance strategies, and investigates innovative staging techniques. He creates powerful visual images that open up deep emotional, ethical, and philosophical questions. For the productions Somewhere Else and Still Life, produced by the Ljubljana Puppet Theatre (Slovenia), he has received numerous national and international awards.