Peter Kus: WOLFHEART, Slovene premiere

Photo: Peter Kus

The puppet and music project Wolfheart tells a story about the life of a young wolf being separated from his own pack and forced to venture on his own path of life. Along the way he is facing challenges similar to the challenges of the youth in human cultures: He has to say goodbye to the safe haven of his family (pack), start a life counting on experience passed onto him, face the new environment which is foreign and sometimes hostile, overcome fear, be resourceful, gather the strength and courage and start a new life in his own pack. The tale about a wolf growing up is also a tale about ourselves. The original text by Nana Miličinski and Peter Kus was created based on the real story of the wolf named Slavc. Biologists from the University of Ljubljana were following him via a telemetric collar from July 2011 till August 2012 (the project Slowolf) and reconstructed his journey from Slavnik on the Karst in Slovenia to Lessinia in the northern Italy.

An important endeavour of the performance is to unveil the mystical image of the wolf, which in the Western culture (and especially in children’s literature) is presented as dark, evil and bloodthirsty. The optimism of the story about “wolfheart” is unlike the destruction of nature and the incapability of our cohabitation – the cataclysm of a planet appearing at the horizon.

Text: Nana Milčinski, Peter Kus
Direction, music: Peter Kus
Dramaturgy: Nana Milčinski
Design: Morana Dolenc
Performed by: Igor Baksa, Davor Dokleja, Karolina Horvat, Bruno Kontrec
Production: Kazališna družina Pinklec (Čakovec), Zavod Federacija Ljubljana
Partner: Bunker, Ljubljana
Supported by: The Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia, The Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, Čakovec City, Ljubljana City Municipality