Puppet Theatre
Play and concept: Abdul Haq Haqjoo
Director: Lutz Grossmann
Music: Ahmad Nasir Formuli
The Grimm fairy tale "Hans in Luck", which Abdul Haq Haqjoo transformed into "Hassan in Luck", is shown from the point of view of his country as an universal metaphor arising from suffering and tragedy. The teenager Hassan receives a large lump of gold as a reward for seven years of work. He exchanges this for a horse, the horse for a cow, the cow for a pig (no pig is haram!). Or perhaps better, for an animal that is halal? And that for a goose? From here, the storyteller intervenes and wants to end the story according to his own wishes. And the less Hassan owns, the easier it becomes not only for his back, but also for his heart.
The Afghan puppeteer and actor Abdul Haq Haqjoo, together with the puppeteer Lutz Grossman, has created his own version of the Grimm fairy tale, which focuses strongly on the situation in his home country Afghanistan.
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© Abdulhaq Haqjoo
Abdul Haq Haqjoo (born 1983) is an acting teacher, actor, puppeteer and director. After the fall of the Taliban in 2001, he was accepted to study in the theatre department of the Faculty of Fine Arts in Kabul. He became a member of the "Azdar Theatre Company", which was founded by students in 2006. Between 2007 and 2011, he participated in workshops for acting and puppet making with Wieland Jadodzinski (Germany) and co-founded the puppet theatre ensemble "Parwaz" in 2008. After graduating from Kabul University, he moved to Berlin where he completed a Master's degree at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts (2009-2011). After returning to Kabul, he taught at the theatre department of the Faculty of Fine Arts in Kabul and founded the company Parwana, which combined puppet and shadow theatre with the play of actors. Abdul Haq Haqjoo has performed in numerous international plays and worked exclusively on contemporary stories as a director and puppeteer. He left Afghanistan in November 2021 to pursue a Master's degree at the Theatre Department of Aix-Marseille University. There he is currently doing a PhD on contemporary formal approaches to life stories in theatre.
Wieland Jagodzinski, founder of the puppet theatre ensemble "Parwaz", moderates a discussion on puppet theatre in Afghanistan with Abdul Haq Haqjoo, Shir Khan Ahmadzai and Homan Wesa after the performance.
© Wieland Jagodzinski
Wieland Jagodzinski received his diploma as a performing artist in the field of show and puppetry at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin in 1974. For many years he worked as a puppeteer at the Puppentheater in Berlin and taught puppetry at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin and at the University of Music and Theatre in Rostock. Numerous international workshops took him abroad, including Morocco, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Cameroon, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, where he directed several workshops and productions from 2007-2013. Jagodzinksi is co-founder of the first Afghan puppet theatre ensemble "Parwaz".
© Homan Wesa
Homan Wesa is an actor, writer and director. While studying acting at Kabul University, he began working with the Azdar Theatre Company, with whom he performed nationally and internationally. In 2009, he co-founded the Parwaz Puppet Theatre Company. Wesa has appeared in numerous films, most recently "The Lost Bag", which won Best Short Film at the Herat International Festival in 2015. In 2017, Wesa and his theatre group were invited to the German National Theatre in Weimar. Since then, he has been a member of the KULA Company. From 2018-2022 he studied directing at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin. Wesa works in Germany as a freelance director and actor.
© Shir Khan Ahmadzai
Shir Khan Ahmadzai was born in Kunduz, Afghanistan, in 1981. He has a Bachelor's degree in Journalism from Kabul University. Shir Khan has many years of professional experience in children's circus and was also the writer, producer and presenter of Ta Khana Bala Khana - a television programme for children on Arezu Television. He was awarded the best producer and presenter of children's television programmes by NAI - Supporting Open Media in Afghanistan.
© Gita Formuli
Ahmad Nasir Formuli is a puppeteer, director and actor. He studied acting at Kabul University and has worked with the Azdar Theatre Company since 2006. In 2009, he co-founded the Parwaz Puppet Theatre Company. After a suicide attack during a theatre performance in 2014, he left Afghanistan and came to study in Germany, where he completed his Master's in Puppetry at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts in 2017. Today Nasir lives in Giessen, where he offers workshops on puppet making. As an actor, he most recently performed at the Stadttheater Klagenfurt.
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