Tandarica

(Central Bucharest State Puppet and Marionette Theater), a Rumanian puppet theater established in 1948. The manager and artistic director of Ţăndărică (literally, “piece of wood”) is M. Niculescu.

Bold satire, poetic metaphor, visually embodied hyperbole, the grotesque, and pantomime are among the artistic devices used in the theater’s puppet shows. The repertoire includes Rumanian folktale classics by I. Creangă and fairy-tale plays by Rumanian writers, including C. Popovici and M. Stoian, as well as Soviet writers. The hero of many of the theater’s shows is the popular fairy-tale figure Ţăndărică, a crafty, mischievous, boy.

Tăndărică’s parody The Hand With Five Fingers was awarded first prize at the International Puppet Theater Festival in Bucharest in 1958.

There are two groups of puppeteers at Ţăndărică: one for marionettes and one for hand puppets. The scripts are recorded on tape. Many of the songs used in the show are sung by famous singers. Ţăndărică has toured abroad. It visited the USSR in 1957, 1961, and 1976.