The Fabulous Baron

About

In the near future, somewhere in the middle of Europe, there is an empire where not only lies and fabrications, but also any fantasies that could threaten the ruling power are prohibited. Whoever commits such an audacity is brought before the court and sentenced to imprisonment. In this land, an impoverished baron fathers a boy of immense imagination, whom the history will know as the Fabulous Baron.

Without uttering a word on stage, the main character tells fantastic stories that are hard to believe, yet literally true. In an interminable narration, he dances the tango with an angry bull, rescues a flying ray from intrusive fishermen and gets to roam the vast ocean depths with the ray as a reward. Ravens are the most loyal friends of the tireless storyteller, and he engages in long discussions with them. Yet he still finds himself in a country where saying anything that is not a proven fact is forbidden under a strict penalty.

The multimedia production The Fabulous Baron combines film projections with a comic and large-scale puppets. Live music is an essential component of the production as background to the artists’ performance. Our Baron is based on familiar characters such as Till Eulenspiegel from German medieval myths; Baron Munchausen from a novel by Gottfried August Burger; Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver; Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes y Saavedra, or the father figure from the tale Cinnamon Shops written by Bruno Schulz.