Malmö Dockteater is staging Candide by Voltaire, dramatized and directed by Erik Holmström. The performance is done in collaboration with Kulturhuset Stadsteatern in Stockholm and will premiere in Vällingby on March 6th before coming to Bastionen in Malmö on April 17th–May 5th 2024 where we will perform both public performances and daytime performances for high schools.

Candide by Voltaire is a French literary classic and a showdown with a troubled and brutal contemporary in the 18th century. In our theatrical adaptation, we take on the story with the help of homemade muskets, many liters of theatrical blood and lots of character changes before the curtain opens. Three actors share the novel's enormous gallery of characters and play out wars, executions, love scenes, natural disasters, shipwrecks, and the search for the meaning of life. It is tragedy, comedy and an unsubtle and overt parody of humanity with splatter and drums. When Sweden's only puppet theater for adults takes on this classic, there won't be very many puppets. We don't just target adults, but also dare to invite some young people into the salon. We step outside our framework and make an artistic detour into unknown territory that we hope you will want to follow us on.

About Candide
Candide is a riotous and satirical novel from 1759 written by the French writer and philosopher Voltaire. It deals with war, natural disasters, venereal diseases, greed, egoism, altruism, the slave trade, depressions, religions, whippings, hangings, disembowelments, rapes, utopias, dystopias, the meaning of life, the meaninglessness of life and cultural clashes, all under the slogan “we live in the best of all worlds”.

Candide is a co-production between Kulturhuset Stadsteatern Vällingby and Malmö Puppet Theatre.