Who doesn't know Dimitri the famous clown from Switzerland? He founded 'la scuola teatro Dimitri' in the Canton of Tessin and on Saturday, May 24, 2008 the members of the Swiss association of Singapore had the opportunity to see it. The production was held in the National Library and was one of many events from the Arts Festival Singapore.

The story is very simple: there is Tallina, a working girl, who always plays tricks on others and then laughs at their misfortune. One day, her boss has enough of her behavior and runs away. Tallina, alone, decides to set out for new adventures. Shortly after she meets Quak, a man in whom she finds a soul mate. Together they enjoy life as much as possible and have lots of fun - naturally at the expense of others.

But then they meet a homeless man sleeping outside on the floor. His shoes are lying next to him. Tallina and Quak take the shoes and hide them, and then wait for the homeless man to wake up. Finally he wakes up and he's looking for his shoes but cannot find them. As a reaction, he's not getting angry - no, he's getting very, very sad!  Tallina, so absolutely surprised by his tears, realizes for the first time in her life that playing tricks on others is not always fun for everybody. She gives the shoes back and tries to cheer the man up. And it works! He starts laughing again!

Still convinced that laughing is the most important thing to do Tallina and Quak change their strategy and from now on they don't play tricks anymore but try to cheer up all the sad and lonely people. They are very successful at it and live happily ever after...

Even without a spoken dialogue the story was very clear. The faces of the actors spoke their very own language - the mimic changed from sad to happy to surprised to misunderstanding and so on. Sometimes it was very funny.  The children didn't really understand the moral of the story, but they had a lot of fun too.

After the show, while enjoying some nice drinks offered by the Swiss Embassy and some delicious snacks offered by Swiss Bake, we had the opportunity to meet the three actors - Luisa Braga, Paul Del Bene and Ulrike Kinbach - we got their autographs on the advertisement poster!

It was just a wonderful afternoon!

Swiss Association Member
Doris Faesi