1993 "The Sly Little Fox" Ukrainian Puppet Theater Poster
DESCRIPTION
Ukrainian poster advertising the Poltava Regional Puppet Theater's production of the Latvian children's play Khytre Lysenia; in English "The Sly Little Fox" or "The Cunning Fox Cub."
Beneath the tree and fox at the center of the poster, the name of the production is written in stylized bright red Cyrillic block letters. Above, the poster credits the playwright V. Pavlovskis, while below it names the other leading talent involved: director V. Siryk, Designer V. Kozub (likely Viktor Kozub), and Composer V. Yakubovych. The text at the top of the poster clarifies in Ukrainian that the production is sanctioned by the Ministry of Culture of the Ukrainian SSR and that it is being put on by the Poltava Regional Puppet Theatre.
The Sly Little Fox
This children's play by the Latvian Pavlovskis tells the story of three young animals that live in the forest: Fox Cub, Bear Cub, and Hare (the latter two presumably being the unseen figures hiding in the tree). Fox Cub, thinking he's the cleverest creature in the woods, is constantly tricking his friends until one day the pair decide they've had enough. Summaries of the play don't make exactly clear how this vengeance is carried out, but its presumably related to the wasps shown barreling towards Fox Cub. Oftentimes, the play was staged as an interactive show and had children call out to the characters to advance the plot.
A Soviet Imprint in Independent Ukraine
This poster was printed in a new country. Its header names the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine, a title the ministry held only from independence in 1991 until the mid-1990s. It also credits the theater’s chief director, Anatolii Poliak, as an Honored Artist of Ukraine. Poliak had led the Volyn regional puppet theater from 1984 and was invited to Poltava in March 1992. Those details place the poster around 1992–95. Yet the small print in the lower right still speaks Soviet. It is in Russian, credits an artist named Kononov, and gives a sign-off-for-printing date of 5 November 1968 and a censor’s approval number. The identical line appears on the theater’s Soviet-era posters. It appears to have been a stock imprint, carried from one print job to the next, long after both the censor and the state that employed him had disappeared.
CONDITION
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