The Atofri Theatre was born from a desire to create with the youngest children in mind. Searching for the most appropriate way to communicate with them, we decided that music, movement, and visual art would allow us to reach them in a gentle, unobtrusive, and unconventional way.
Live music played on various instruments is an important source of our inspiration. Nurturing children’s imaginations, we allow ourselves to be highly abstract. We play with props, regardless of their literal meaning. A kite transforms into a rooster’s comb, a ship into a hat. Words don’t build a story, but complement individual scenes. An encounter with our theatre is a thrilling journey with music, often sung, stories told through movement, and a gaze fixed on form and color.
And all this for the joy of both you and us!
Beata Bąblińska and Monika Zajączkowska
The Atofri Theatre is the first theatre group in Poland, founded in 2008, with the aim of creating performances primarily for the youngest audiences. Its activities began with the birth of the so-called “newest movement” in Poland – theatres creating performances for children from a few months to three years of age. This was a time when the idea of engaging young audiences in the world of culture was being defined and ways of building a theatrical repertoire for this unique age group were being explored.
Over the years, the Atofri Theatre has consistently shaped its aesthetic, seeking forms of communication with the youngest audiences, and has developed its own unique artistic language, distinguished by an abstract approach to the subject matter, high-quality music, demanding set design, and a significant amount of movement and dance in close proximity to the audience.
Beata Bąblińska and Monika Zajączkowska, the founders of the theatre, who continue to run it today, began their pioneering journey under the auspices of the Poznań Art Foundation. Since 2022, the Atofri Theatre has operated as a non-governmental organization under the name Atofri Artistic Association.
The theatre presents its performances in various corners of the world, in parks and on stages, in towns and cities, and at national and international theatre festivals. It performs wherever the youngest audience members sit in the audience and absorb new impressions, sounds, and images with curiosity.