A winter tale woven from sounds – We spoke with Viktória Szántó about the performance entitled The Song of the Ice Cave.

The Song of the Ice Cave is an immersive musical fairy tale produced by CODE and Kabóca Puppet Theater.

A joint production. This intimate family story takes place in CODE's hexagonal space, and takes the audience on a magical journey through the winter wonderland.

With nearly a quarter of a century of professional work, Kabóca Puppet Theater has long been a defining cultural player in Veszprém. CODE Digital Experience Center, as the city's newest innovative venue, combines technology and art. This year, the two institutions jointly conceived the performance The Song of the Ice Cave, and we asked Viktória Szántó, deputy director of Kabóca Puppet Theater, about the secrets behind the scenes.

It is a well-established tradition in the world of puppet theater to offer programs that are loosely connected to the holiday season, so the theater has had several similar performance concepts in its repertoire in the past. Andrea Ladányi, a member of our artistic management team, Kossuth Award winner and Meritorious Artist, is directing the play, and she is also responsible for the visual conceptand choreography. We agreed with her that her artistic work would fit well with the CODE Hexagon space and the immersive spatial experience. This is how this innovative artistic concept was born.

As the city theater of Veszprém, it means a lot to Kabóca that CODE has placed its trust in us with this collaboration. I also think it is a wonderful initiative that Veszprém's partner institutions are jointly creating productions from which everyone can benefit individually and institutionally.. These collaborations are definitely a useful experience for all of us, and perhaps they will provide sufficient work for the future as well.

Yes, kids aged 7-12 appear in the fairy tale, which was Andrea's idea, as she had previously worked extensively with child actors in other productions. The artistic director of Kabóca Puppet Theater also found it a particularly appealing concept that, in addition to nationally recognized artists, kids also play a role in the creative team, allowing them to learn about the work process firsthand. It was wonderful to see and experience how Andrea and Lili worked with the kids. Even during the casting process, one of the most important criteria was that the kids who applied should have an interest in the arts, as a production like this can be a huge learning opportunity for them.

In terms of organization, working with kids posed logistical difficulties, as we had to coordinate the school and private lives of 13 child actors due to rehearsals. Maintaining contact with parents and building trust is also a serious task in such a process, as the kids take part in rehearsals independently without parental assistance. It is not necessarily obvious to everyone that they can entrust their kids to our professionals with complete peace of mind, as our staff are aware of how much pressure young children can handle from a developmental psychology perspective.

Indeed, since we are not talking about a six-month process in this case, the kids only had a few days to rehearse at Kabóca Puppet Theater. During this time, we asked them to concentrate as much as possible, and fortunately, they met our expectations perfectly. Regardless of this, we did not have enough time to put the product together after mapping out the individual capabilities: in this case, the artistic concept was already predetermined, and we looked for child actors with the right qualities to fit this idea. It is important to emphasize that Andre has a special talent for bringing the community together, which we have experienced many times during our work together. It was wonderful to see that this also worked perfectly with the kids. On the first day, they still seemed very shy, but by the end of the second day, we could already say that true friendships had been formed between the kids. I am sure that these moments and Andrea's creative energy, which everyone can feel, will also be evident during the performance. The special process of working in an analog wayin the immersive digital space was an inspiring challenge for everyone involved in the planning stage.

The text was written by Róbert Markó, who has an impressive knowledge of folk tales and is currently pursuing his doctoral studies and is writing his dissertation on the subject. The story of The Song of the Ice Cave was inspired by several international fairy tales, and we can recognize recurring motifs such as the icy world, the evil queen, the ice cave, the three little kids, and the three different trials. The story is narrated by Anikó Für in the performance, and her excellent acting skills also enrich the production.

We have already seen in several animated films that there are often more adults than kids in the cinema, because they enjoy themselves just as much, and sometimes even more than kids. In the case of a theatrical performance, it is also important to communicate on multiple levels: it is very delicate and sensitive work to find the perfect balance so that the message of a given situation and message are such that both kids and adults can identify with them. It is a great responsibility to do this work. Personally, I strongly believe that this works well if we do not exclude kids for a moment for the sake of being nice.

I am a big fan of immersive theater experiences, which are available in several places around the country, and fortunately, there is now one in Veszprém at the CODE venue. I also love immersive spaces because in my ideal theater, the audience is free. I don't even necessarily expect them to sit quietly and watch the performance, I can also allow them to switch on and off the story. In CODE, we are treating the space in a more classical way, as there will be a conceptually separate auditorium and stage, but it will be particularly exciting to see how the audience reacts to so many stimuli. And that's not to mention the fact that different age groups will undoubtedly experience the complexity of the experience in different ways.