Don’t Worry, Mushroom | Perform Czech

The forest is waking up. The mushrooms are growing. He who lives in the forest goes out to harvest them, but one small mushroom can’t grow. ‘Can’t or won’t?’ asks the would-be harvester. Does he want to grow, or does he have to? Ultimately, no one wants to succumb to fear, but no one wants to be alone, either. Not even a mushroom in the forest.

Don’t Worry, Mushroom is a puppet production for children about the fear of growing up and facing our mortality. The production is based on an original story inspired by the philosophy of reincarnation and its resemblance to the mycelium structure of mushrooms.

Directed by the TMEL collective
Original story conceived and performed by Antonie Rašilovová
Dramaturgy, music: Jan Froněk
Scenography: Berta Doubková

About the company

TMEL (‘putty’ in Czech) is a group, an ensemble, a collective, or anything that sticks together. TMEL came together in 2021 at the Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (DAMU), as a collaboration between six students from the Department of Alternative and Puppet Theatre studying multiple disciplines. Their first production, O as in Little Otik, was performed at the Figura Festival in Switzerland, where it was nominated for the Grünschnabel Prize. Little Otik also went to Italy, for the City Festival in Narni. Don’t Worry, Mushroom is their newest production.