Starting from a short story by Anne Cottringer, i.e. Lara and the Bad Lion, our story deals with an imaginary lion Frieda creates in order to overcome the affective loss caused by the new born little brother. After a particular event Frieda ends up by finding herself closer to her younger brother while the lion disappears in the same door where he had appeared. The goal of our performance is that of underlining the problem of accepting a younger brother with which one will share the parental love, and the mechanisms of fantasy through which one tries to defend himself from or replace this loss. When a lion knocked at the door is meant to be an actor theatre performance contaminated by the circus’ arts. This is also the goal of our theatrical research. In particular in this show we are interested in the use of the juggler’s art and acrobatics to emphasize the fantasy atmosphere in which Frieda lives in her games with the lion and to render the latter (played by a dressed up actor) more an extra-daily persona.
The Plot
Frida is a happy girl. She likes to play with mum, to go to the park with dad, to invent many stories together with them. Then mum’s belly starts to grow. The napkins, the cradle, the baby’s bottle appear. Mum and dad have no more time for playing with Frida, and she feels terribly bored. Then it is time for Martino to arrive on the scene, and Frida cannot play with him, since the first time she tries to keep him in her arms he starts to cry, and mum and dad scold her. That same day together with Martino a lion gets in. He does not look like a bad lion at all, on the contrary… Frida has a great time together with the lion. They play, they have fun, they roll on together, they also nestle each other. Frida’s room becomes a magical world. One day it becomes a real huge circus tent, full of colours, music and all the possible attractions. Frida and the Lion are the protagonists of the show. But as the Lion sees Martino in his cradle he roars aloud and destroys everything he can. So mum and dad scold Frida, and she scolds the Lion. Anyway, sometimes dad takes Frida to the amusement park or to the supermarket, and she has fun on the roundabout, or in the rows of shelves at the supermarket together with her dad. The Lion is there having fun, too. But as soon as dad says Martino’s name the Lion gets angry and starts to cause damage: to turn the shelves upside down, to roll the tomato tins all over the supermarket’s floor, to push dad and to tease him, until…
Range of age 4-8 year-old children
