Lullaby for mice

Performative reading for viewers from 4 years.

In the latest performative reading of Groteski, we enter directly into the land of children's emotions and fantasies. Late in the evening, just before going to bed, a boy named Juli becomes a captain, a bath - a ship, and a plush Goat - a companion of distant travels. Together they prepare for a trip to the lunar seas. Suddenly there is a gentle scraping and knocking from behind the wall. Who's knocking? Wind, pipe, or something that was hiding from Julio?

Evening is a difficult time for a boy. He would already like to sleep in his own bed, but at night he does not always feel big enough. Parents do everything that usually helps to fall asleep: they prepare a warm bath, fresh bedding, a cup of milk and a well-known rhyme. Juli hugs Goat, closes her eyes and tries not to think about the noises from behind the wall. However, the more he listens, the more dangerous the tapping seems to him.

Mysterious night guests come to the rescue. The Moon advises to look at the worry from above, the Wind tries to drown out the disturbing sounds, and the Cat knows the solution to the riddle, but more than Juliet's quiet sleep he is interested in his own dinner.

When the perpetrators of all the confusion emerge from behind the walls, everything changes unexpectedly. Juli confronts her fear and discovers that everyone can sometimes be afraid of something.

Lullaby for mice tells about a child who once feels big and once small. About parents who allow him to grow up without haste. And about courage, which is not that we stop feeling fear.

Karolina Baster (guest) Rafał Iwański (guest) Maja Spychaj-Kubacka Andrzej Kopczyk

Karolina Pesta's art was created in 2025 as part of the 3rd edition of the Writing Program of the Children's Art Center in Poznań and was published in the anthology Invisible? (Volume 55 of the New Arts for Children and Youth series).