Apoutsiak

Tales / to stage

Story for kids – and those who haven’t given up on loving stories for kids.

The story of Apoutsiak brings us all into the lives of the Eskimos for a moment.
Apoutsiak means: little snowflake

When the story begins, Apoutsiak is a really tiny little snowflake, rolled up like a ball on his mother’s back.
Like all the babies in the world, all he needed to be happy was to fall asleep sucking his mother’s milk – and then he was really happy and fell asleep with his little fists closed with delight.

The story will accompany him until he becomes a man.
We will follow him in his first steps, and like all the little ones in the world, he stumbles, he cries and he laughs as much.

You will tell me that this is not a very extraordinary story – it is true.
It is not extraordinary when you are from the country.

But for everyone else, this little boy’s life is totally incredible. How do you live in an igloo? How do you stay warm? How do you find clothes to keep from freezing? How do you love your parents, grandparents, cousins, family and friends?
At what age can you go fishing with Dad? But how do you go fishing? by making holes in the ice? but how? but how?

And what is that strange little sheet on the front of the canoe?
And what about this, and that, and this ??? the story, very slowly, answers all the questions that jump out at us while looking at the pictures.

It must be said that this story, written in 1948, was written by Paul Emile Victor (yes, another Frenchman) – who was an wonderful explorer – he was so amazed by the life of the Inuits that he absolutely wanted to tell us about his great discoveries “of life”.

How do we put this story on a stage?
Would it be successful?

– no, you can’t ask me these questions.

The success, big or small, will be absolute – remember the thousands of spectators who rushed to the stage with tears in their eyes for the adventures of the penguins – for example.
The world of ice is so strange to us, both incredibly beautiful and extremely difficult, that it is hard to imagine how to be a child in it.

So for once, meeting a child – and who is called little snowflake – is not to be missed.
Especially since we don’t have to add to his story: the story of a little boy trying to live in such a harsh environment is more than enough.

As for staging it… the immense success of this little children’s book lies in its illustrations first.

When I say image, I inevitably think stage – the images can be real – but here we leave in the register of films, or illustrations and there, on a stage of theatre, it would be so ideal – a pure happiness of the eyes, a great time of pleasure for the ears too…

… as I haven’t forgotten my Virtual Reality stories for children, my VR in Sweet mode, – … remember the trick with the dragonflies flying on the stage? – I can easily imagine the moment of paradise that it could be for the little ones, to go all together to butterfly in the incredible sceneries of the world of Apoutsiak.

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Featured image : from Apoutsiak, by Paul-Emile Victor – ed Flammarion 1948