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Baobab

Motus and the SÔ Company
from Longueuil, Canada and Bandiagara, Mali

March 11 – 19, 2023
Recommended Ages
For ages 4 – 7
Price
Tickets start at $25*
Members save 40%
*Service fees will apply to web and phone orders
What Kind of Show?
Theater with puppetry and live music; artful and charming
Running Time
55 minutes with no intermission
Venue
The New Victory Theater 209 W 42nd Street
New York, NY 10036

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Sensory-Friendly Performance

About the Show

Come hear the djembe drums dance and the ngoni’s strings sing as the griots tell you a tale. A tale set long ago when the stars were still babies, and the trees and animals talked. A tale passed down from generation to generation about a water-stealing sun and a baobab tree bearing an unexpected and unusual gift. Featuring music from Mali and Senegal, puppets large and small, one naughty monkey and a witch with an itch to dance, Baobab is a percussion-filled fable about a boy’s heroic quest to save his village from drought.

A little gem of international theatre

Winnipeg Free Press

The show on stage is just one act of your family’s visit! Come early and stay after for free pre- & post-show activities and kid-friendly amenities—part of the New Victory Experience.

Did You Know?

  1. A griot is a musician-storyteller in West African cultures who shares and preserves a community’s oral traditions, from history and genealogy to religion and folklore.
  2. Before the advent of writing, people passed knowledge from generation to generation through storytelling traditions based in the arts—poetry, puppetry, music, call and response, dance. Baobab continues that age-old tradition!
  3. Musical instruments native to West Africa, like the djembe drum, agogô bell and shekere, made their way into popular music in the Americas and the Caribbean, as enslaved Africans brought their musical traditions with them.

About the Company

Motus specializes in original theater for young audiences that highlights the diversity of world cultures. Combining live music with different styles of puppetry, the company has collaborated with artists from Japan to Mexico to Burkina Faso, telling tales that integrate other languages and foster cultural exchange. For Baobab in particular, they’ve joined forces with Mali’s SÔ Company to share this West African story authentically. Beyond their native Quebec, they’ve performed in 12 countries, translating their work into English, Spanish and Mandarin for audiences around the world.

Creative Team

Writer and Director
Hélène Ducharme

Playwright Collaborator
Hamadoun Kassogue

English Version
Leanna Brodie

Assistant to the Director
Annie Bélanger

Scenography
Ismaïla Manga and Hélène Ducharme

Puppets
Jean Cummings, Sylvain Racine and Claude Rodrigue

Music
Aboulaye Koné assisted by Nathalie Cora

Lighting
Michel St-Amand

Shadow Puppetry
Marcelle Hudon

Costumes
Louis Hudon

Research
Marie-Claude Labrecque, Sylvain Massé and Louis-Philippe Paul-Hus