A Kings Journey

Königs Weltreise . Le voyage d`un roi . El viaje del Rey . Královská cesta

Shadow theater with live music . Version for children from 6 years . Version for adults

A production by Peter Müller (Theater Handgemenge) and Annette Wurbs

world premiere

Photos: Jörg Metzner

A King, a lady, a deranged population, watering cans, umbrellas, and an entirely unique story. An adventurous journey around half the world with more than 60 shadow figures.

Announcement for children:

The story is set in a country, well you could say, a special country. A country where all the citizens wear watering cans and umbrellas. On weekdays, also on weekends, all the time, in fact. It seems to be the law. The country also has a king, who is quite remarkable. He had never left his castle before, and when one day the tower falls apart, the king tumbles down through the earth to the other side!
Ms. Care, the women who looks after him, also falls. Having arrived on the other side of the earth, both of them want to go home. This means traveling halfway around the world! But for someone like our king this is not easy at all. Almost impossible, in fact, especially when he starts arguing with Ms. Care. If not for two items that prove to be very useful - Mrs. Care an umbrella, and the king his crown - they would not have made it back to their castle . And they wouldn`t have seen so many exciting places and experienced so much adventure.
And just how this curious story ends, you can find out for yourself!

Our story is based on shadow images by the visual artist Wiebke Steinmetz.

"Staged with pun, verbal and visual ambiguity. Fantastic images and sound structures that bear the quality seal of a work of art earn absolutely indisputably"

"A look into the audience proved just how much the floatingly light form of the narrative also offered space for infectious and refreshing humour. Astonishment, laughter and finally raging applause had taken hold of each and every one of them.

Pronounced puns, a veritable firework of images and rousing live music: the theatre performed its shadow play "King's World Tour" in Weißenseifen in the sold-out theatre. Annette Wurbs and Peter Müller delighted both children and adults with the king's adventurous journey halfway around the world - with surreal-looking pictures. The audience thanked them with thunderous applause.
June 2013

Audience Award 2015 at the festival in Mistelbach (Austria)

Variant for children starting from the age of 6 years, Duration approx. 60 minutes
Variant for young people and adults. Duration approx. 80 minutes

Languages: German, English, French, Spanish . Simultaneous translation: Danish, Dutch, Czech, Slovakian, Farsi

Music: 2 variants:
1. exclusive variant with live Pianist John Carlson. Livemusic Annette Wurbs and Peter Müller
2. without live Pianist. Livemusic Annette Wurbs and Peter Müller

Live on piano John R. Carlson:
John R. Carlson was born in 1971 in Ellensburg, Washington, USA and studied Classical Ballet at the Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle from 1986 to 1989 as a scholarship student. He then danced with Pacific Northwest Ballet Seattle before moving to Wismar in 1990. Since then he has worked throughout Germany and Europe as a freelance musician (piano, electronics, voice), composer for theatre, film and concert as well as improviser and performer.
As a composer and/or musical director, he has participated in well over 70 theatre plays.

or

Live at the piano Gregory Nemirovsky:
Gregory Nemirovsky was born in 1971 in Lugansk, Ukraine, and studied composition, music theory and piano at the Lysenko Music School in Kiev and the Kiev Academy of Music from 1985 to 1995. After graduating, he worked as a lecturer at the University of Kiev and composed for numerous TV and cinema productions as a freelance artist. He has also recorded several CDs, played in various bands and given concerts in France, Thailand, Italy and Germany.

Music by Gundolf Nandico

performances in:
France, Spain, Denmark, Iran, Switzerland, Austria, Czech Republic, Slowakei, Greece, Belgium, Scotland, England, Canada, India, Sri Lanka, Honduras, Nicaragua, Mexico, Panama, El Salvador, the USA, Thailand, Algeria, Colombia