The city of Charleville-Mézières, the UNIMA – Union Internationale de la Marionnette and the Institut International de la Marionnette join forces to welcome from the 18th to the 25th of March, during the festivities planned for the World Puppetry Day 2023, 4 Ukrainian puppetry students and their director Oksana Dmitryeva.

The opportunity to lay the foundations of a longer term cooperation during the next edition of the World Puppetry Day 2023 which federates about twenty partners in Charleville-Mézières, in the Ardennes department and in the Grand Est region.

This delegation will be able to take part in numerous activities and present selected pieces of its shows Vertep and I’m OK.

• Vertep

Director: Oksana Dmitrieva / Set design: Konstantin Zorkin

Vertep is a traditional Ukrainian puppetry theatre. Vertep resonates today in a particularly relevant and poignant way in Ukraine, where war is raging and every individual must be saved. The Kharkiv School offers a singular reading. It is not a canonical Vertep that will be proposed here, but rather an experimental vision of this eternal plot through object theatre and an original puppetry and theatrical approach.

> Wednesday 22 March: Charleville-Mézières, Théâtre de l’ESNAM, 7pm (Reservation at the Institute)

> Thursday 23 March: Reims, Jardin Parallèle, 2.30 pm (Reservation at Jardin Parallèle)

• I’m OK

Director: Oksana Dmitrieva

A theatrical performance adapted from a contemporary play about teenagers in Buca, their thoughts and fears in the early days of the war.

> Friday 24 March: Charleville-Mézières, Ronde couture media library, 2pm

The welcoming of the delegation of Kharkiv is coordinated by the UNIMA. It was built in close collaboration with the City of Charleville-Mézières and the International Institute of Puppetry, and in cooperation with the ESNAM Mienne, the Jardin Parallèle and Culture du Cœur. It benefited from cross-border cooperation aid from the Grand Est region.