The Wooden Whale

After a stormy night, Theo the badger leaves his burrow and finds a whale carved from dark, smooth wood standing between two great oaks. A small door near its tail leads him inside, where wooden benches, a curved stage and a heavy red curtain reveal a hidden theater. Mara the hedgehog, Bramble the fox and Ollie the owl soon join him, and Ollie tells of traveling theaters that once rolled from village to village in carts shaped like animals.

The whale theater has long been neglected: the stage is crooked, the wheels are clogged with mud and twigs, and the red curtain hangs in tatters. Theo proposes that the friends repair it together, and each does what he or she does best. This gentle tale by Yavuz DEMİRKIRAN follows their patient, curious work and can be read on Online Masal.