Italo Calvino's
INVISIBLE CITIES
A Toy Theater Atlas
created and performed by Matthew Gawryk & Dan Kerr-Hobert
Chicago, June 4 Tickets Here
EDINBURGH FESTIVAL FRINGE
August 5 - 30, 2026 at C ARTS
Tickets Soon
"An exquisite and beautiful show that audiences loved seeing, many for a second time."
-Blair Thomas, Artistic Director, The Chicago International Puppet Festival
"a tour de force of ingenuity... Visually witty and masterfully delivered in a suitcase of marvels."
-Tracy C. Davis, Northwestern University
"In Invisible Cities, the intricacy of the objects tells the story."
- Irene Hsiao, Chicago Reader
"An incredible distillation of the novel."
- Dylan Zavagno, Deerfield Librarian
About the show
Italo Calvino’s stunning tale of Marco Polo and Kublai Khan springs to life in this toy theater adaptation, with a cascade of trapdoors, surprises and reveals, using live projection, puppetry, paper mechanics and living sculpture.
Invisible Cities is a conversation between Kublai Khan and his emissary Marco Polo. Even as the Khan feels his empire eroding beneath him, Marco Polo forms the slipping sands into the cities of the emperor's dreams, like Scheherazade in Arabian Nights.
This adaptation in miniature casts a dreamlike spell over the audience as two performers manipulate tiny cameras on a small table, examining the jeweled facets of city life, stunning audiences in theaters and barns across the United States, including a sold out run at the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival.
