One of the ingenuities of silent films was that, as there was no speech, the actors had to convey their story to early-20th-century moviegoers through their gestures and facial expressions. And yet, people loved these black-and-white films with their flamboyant gestures, humorous scenes and slapstick comedy.
Nowadays, silent films are only generally only shown in art cinemas, but the importance of stage gestures and movements still applies to the performing arts, and Veszprém is an excellent example of this.
Some parents were taken to performances as kids, and now take their own children to the same theatre. And the Kabóca Puppet Theatre also runs a small festival each summer called Kabóciádé, at which animated figures made from wood and fabric are in the limelight. To be precise, they star in the live stories performed on stage. It’s difficult to think with a child’s mind once you are an adult, but if you try, perhaps the best way to describe the atmosphere of Kabóciádé is the feeling of stories and toys coming to life – toys which in normal everyday life would just be gathering dust on the top shelf. And given that the range of facial expressions wooden puppets can produce is somewhat limited... rather wooden one might say, the actors at the Kabóca Puppet Theatre have to use all their acting skills to give them most human gestures they can from behind the screen. As adults, we can see through the tricks, but believe me, the Kabóciádé is truly a festival where toys come to life.
