Estonian Theatre for Young Audiences / Museum of Puppetry Arts

This guide to the Estonian Theatre for Young Audiences and Museum of Puppetry Arts in Tallinn tracks a stage that burned down twice on this exact spot, once in eighteen fifty-five and again in nineteen oh two, right after a performance of the opera Hans Heiling. After the second fire, the city gave up on theatre here altogether, and a nobility meeting hall rose on the ruins instead. It follows a touring puppet troupe founded in nineteen fifty-two with no home of its own, and the years they spent performing without a permanent stage. Listen for how long it took before anyone dared open a curtain on this ground again.