Vepsian Fairy Tales

Three humorous fairy tales from the Vepsians

In the northwest of Russia, close to the Finnish border, so not at all far from Estonia, there is a land called Vepsland. Once upon a time in Vepsland, there lived an old man and an old woman, and many tales are told about them. The Vepsians, just like Estonians, Finns, Hungarians and some other small nations are Finno-Ugric peoples. This means that our customs, culture and languages are in many ways similar. For example, Estonians do not have to know the Veps language to understand some of their words. Unfortunately, the Vepsian people are disappearing along with their language, culture and fairy tales. In NUKU theatre we try to help to keep their stories alive by telling tales about the Vepsian old woman, old man and the curious things that happened to them.

“The Vepsian Fairy Tales” is a legendary one-woman-show by Helle Laas from the year 1986, which NUKU theatre restaged with Helle’s help and which is now performed as a one-man-show by Mihkel Tikerpalu.

Cast

Mihkel Tikerpalu

Materials and additional activities

• Teemasid ja ülesandeid lavastuse käsitlemiseks koolitunnis