Fairy tales celebrated during children's International Days of Theatre

As any resident in this country could tell you, the Czechs are very fond of their fairy tales. This is especially the case during the colder months of the year when numerous theatres put on morning or matinee productions for kindergarten toddlers and schoolchildren. Even though spring is almost here, the Pidivadlo Theatre in Prague 7 have thrown open their doors to the kids to commemorate the International Days of Theatre for Children. During Tuesday and Wednesday the young group of drama students will perform eight fairy tales, completely free of charge for children. Radio Prague's Peter Smith was there as the students kicked off their marathon fairy-tale bonanza...

"My name is Karolina Dubna and my role is the biggest one I think - Death! For the children we have this fairy tale about the Four Seasons and then I also act in another fairy tale in the afternoon - Cedbara, a fairy tale from the Czech country."This is the theatre of our school - we managed to have our own theatre - all of us are students or ex-students of the Vysi Odborna Skola in Michle. This is to promote our school and also let people know that this theatre is here for children, and also that there are some performances for adults - we will perform a one-act play by Tennessee Williams in April." Theatre, TV and even the film industry here in the Czech Republic often appear to be obsessed by the production of classic fairy tales. According to Karolina, though, this stems from a tradition with very deep roots. "I don't think that the Czech Republic has more fairy tales than other countries, but I think that this tradition is very long - I don't know why. But it's nice and I'm glad that the children enjoy these performances in this theatre, because I can see that they are not hooked on television or something like that."My role is that Death wants to achieve everything and the other people don't want to allow her. We fight and of course I am the loser at the end!"