Originally published in the USA, in both English and French, on 6 April 1943, the story of The Little Prince has successfully transferred into nearly every other artistic medium, including theatrical adaptations, opera and even ballet.
The Little Prince is a wonderful tale that contemplates the meaning and purpose of love. It is both science fiction and quasi-autobiography; fairy tale and philosophical tract; a book that has become a modern-day myth. The narrator in The Little Prince is an aviator lost in the African desert; its author, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, himself a pilot, disappeared a year after The Little Prince first arrived on bookstands while flying a reconnaissance mission during the Second World War.
After nurturing a single rose on his own world, The Little Prince hops from planet to planet, meeting a series of adults whose futile pursuits disguise the loneliness they all suffer. Arriving on Earth, he meets a fox who reveals to him a simple truth that helps him to find his place in the universe.
The Salzburg Marionette Theatre’s homage to The Little Prince gives you the chance to meet all of its marvellous characters, including a king, conceited man, drunkard, businessman, lamplighter and geographer. And puppetry may be the best way to understand The Little Prince’s fundamental message.
The story, from the outset, tells us of the importance of holding onto our inner child to see the true essence of the world around us. In much the same way, when The Salzburg Marionette Theatre’s puppets come to life, all we need to do is copy our own children and forget that they are made up of wood, pins, fabric and string for them to become real in our imaginations.
