The International Puppet Theatre Festival

Puppet theatre fans know only too well that September in Zagreb is a time reserved for PIF – the International Puppet Theatre Festival, which is being organized for the 46th time this year. Reserve your seat for one of the plays which will be performed by local and international puppet theatres between September 9th and 14th at various venues in the city.

On September 9th, Zagreb will again open its doors to puppets as the 46th PIF. The International Puppet Theatre Festival is scheduled to begin on that day with a PIF procession of adults and children through Zagreb’s central square of Ban Josip Jelačić and Tkalčićeva Street. The opening ceremony will take place on September 10th at the Travno Culture Centre. The festival’s opening act will be the Vologod Regional Puppet Theatre from Russia with their play “Carmen”.

This year’s PIF will once again showcase a selection of the best plays by puppet theatres from Croatia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Serbia, China and Russia. Children will enjoy most of these plays, but they should be of a certain age in order to be able to understand some of them, while some plays will be best enjoyed by adults only. The festival will also feature puppetry workshops, exhibitions, book promotions and other events at various locations in the city. On average, twenty puppet theatres from several countries participate in PIF each year. Since its first edition, more than 550 puppet theatres from all continents have participated in the festival. Certain plays are performed in other Croatian cities, sometimes in neighbouring Slovenia, and even in Austria.

PIF is the acronym for Pupteatra Internacia Festivalo or the International Festival of Puppet Theatres, an event which was launched in 1968 by members of the Students’ Esperanto Club of Zagreb. Since the performances take place in many theatres, the festival’s contribution towards popularizing local and international puppetry is unquestionable.

The organizer of the festival, which will go on until September 14th, is the Travno Culture Centre. The programme and schedule of performances, as well as information about all concurrent events of this year’s PIF, can be found online at www.pif.hr.