This time we recommend productions presented as part of the Theater Olympics by Transylvanian, Slovenian, Greek, and French companies.
M Studio, which operates as the only professional movement theater in Transylvania, comes with the performance [email protected] to the National Dance Theater Budapest, which is a contemporary recontextualization and reinterpretation of Shakespeare’s classic tragedy. The production preserves the essence of the atmosphere of the tragedy, but through Fren_Ák’s specific scenic and choreographic language, it manages to focus the social-original drama on the inner-emotional tragedy.
Fren_Ák’s concept aims to penetrate the deeper layers of the story, capturing the internal struggles of the characters instead of the social contrasts from the drama. The director is concerned with the tension under the surface, he shows the clash of two individuals who are imprisoned in their desires and illusions distorted by the consumer society. As a marionette, man becomes estranged from his environment, community, partner, and finally from himself.
Lift
M Studio’s other production, Lift – which is the work of Ferenc Fehér, one of the most defining figures of Hungarian contemporary dance – has won numerous awards. The performance became a real international success in the company’s history.
Since the presentation in 2018, the company has visited four continents with it, thus achieving an important goal: to provide worldwide insight into the diverse cultural offerings of Transylvanian Sfântu Gheorghe. The performance will be presented in May in Veszprém as part of the Theater Olympics.
Là
Agóra Veszprém hosts the performance Là by the Baro d’evel troupe, representing the Franco-Catalan artistic trend. During the production choreographed and performed by Camille Decourtye and Blaï Mateu Trias, two people and a crow with a shield lead each other in a strange, sensitive, and poetic ballet, in which every body leaves a mark.
Là is a raw and bare gesture between bodies and sounds, rhythms and dances, decay and momentum. It reveals to us a language that takes place in the background of our lives, in which there are no words or periods. It turns our inner world inside out like a glove, encouraging us to examine ourselves in the changing mirror of the surface formed by our gestures. Là, which approaches the here and now, gives a new meaning to our forgotten, impulsive gestures, convulsive twitches, screams, and lives lived at any cost.
INK
The performance INK, realized as part of the MITEM Festival, is the work of the Greek Dimitrisz Papaioannou. The performance toured for two and a half years on 4 continents, 23 countries, and 38 cities. In 2017, the production won the European Theater Award special prize, and Papaioannou was nominated for the Olivier Award in 2019 in the Outstanding Achievement in the Dance category.
Papaioannou, accompanied by the stunning dancer Šuka Horn, explores the limits of reality through the filter of science fiction and horror during a duet that culminates in a duel. The result is a captivating chase, a nightmarish manhunt… or are we just trying to escape from our subconscious? Papaioannou’s production will be presented on the stage of the National Theatre of Hungary.
Immaculata
The production Immaculata is coming to the Jászai Mari Folk Theater in Tatabánya as a guest performance of the Slovenian National Theatre. The production was born in memory of the world-famous Slovenian theater director Tomaž Pandur and directed by his sister Livia Pandur. Pandur’s oeuvre is extremely difficult, almost impossible to conclude: he is a director whose artistic opus defined Slovenian theater and was also significant on a world level.
Throughout, he remained true to his creative creed and unique style, selflessly sharing his visions, dreams, loneliness, fears, and enthusiasm with his colleagues and peers. His Immaculata would have opened this year’s dramatic season in Maribor and would have returned at least a little to where it all began more than thirty years ago.
