Jori Snell's Kitchen Fables in a Cookie Jar combines an intriguing blend of non-verbal storytelling, dance, magical pictures, sound and smell which will capture the imagination of young and old alike.

The show, which  won a prestigious Silver Standard Bank Ovation Award at the National Arts Festival this year, will be performed at 11am on December 14 to 18, 20 to 23 and 27 to 31, 2012, and on January 2 to 6, 2013.

At a not-quite-ordinary kitchen-table, a girl finds kitchen tools and ingredients transform into imaginary friends or weird, sometimes grotesque, creatures of her own fantasy.

“Kitchen Fables in A Cookie Jar, has a subtle similarity to Alice in Wonderland,” says Jori. “It is set in the kind of magical-realistic worlds we get to explore in our dreams and is theatre to engage all the senses. Flying objects, coloured lights, enchanting sounds and delicious smells take the girl on an exciting journey of discovery through dreamy landscapes that give way for a gradual understanding of what play and friendship can bring in times of solitude and being lost.”

Kitchen Fables in A Cookie Jar is created, directed and performed by Jori Snell and Baba Yaga Theatre, which she established in 2004. Jori also created the costume, set and lighting design for the production. Caroline Calburn provided artistic counseling.

Jori Snell is an award-winning performer and educator who has worked extensively around Europe and South Africa. She translates her training in physical theatre, dance, martial arts and mime into a very personal language, often inspired by a weird and humorous, universe. Baba Yaga Theatre combines physical theatre with fairytales, myth, poetry, use of objects, and the creation of magic visual pictures.

Productions include Inua, which won a Silver Standard Bank Ovation Award and a Handspring Puppet Award for Best Visual Performance; and Door which was also nominated for Ovation and Handspring Awards. Jori has worked and taught with companies such as Ubom!, FTH:K, Remix Dance Company, Ikapa Dance Company, UCT Drama Department, UCT School of Dance, New Africa Theatre and City Varsity.

Comments about Kitchen Fables in a Cookie Jar include:

• ‘a sophisticated piece of theatre-work for kids’  (Tonight)
• ‘Snell has the most amazing ideas, executes them in a visual way, with brilliant use of light, screens, costumes and props...everything is like an expression of art’ (Megan’s Head 2010)
• ‘Creative combination of physical theatre, projected imagery and soundscapes,...Snell’s formidable physicality and theatricality leads the audience on a mythical journey...with quirky humour’ (Theresa Edmann, Cue 2011)
• ‘Physical theatre of exceptional virtuosity and emotion’ (Enrique Pardo, Pantheatre-Paris)