antagon theaterAKTion and Ondadurto Teatro „Diaspora. Współczesna tragedia” [Diaspora. Contemporary tragedy] | Germany/Italy
About the theatre companies:
antagon theaterAKTion is an international group of artists who live and work together as a theatre company in Frankfurt am Main. The group was founded in 1990 by Bernhard Buba. They perform at festivals all over the world, create shows, organize festivals and socially engaged and community projects. For them, „theatre” is a process that takes place when a group collaborates on a project. They aim to recover the forgotten traditional roots of theatre and to create culture that’s free and inclusive. As a collective, they employ novel means of expression to remind people that the hope for creating a better world will not be found in technology, but in the human heart.
Ondadurto Teatro is a theatre company founded in 2005 in Rome. Managed by Margò Paciotti and Lorenzo Pasquali, it has thrived thanks to the shared efforts of people who have been involved in their projects and activities over the years. Ondadurto Teatro focuses on physical theatre, new circus and gestures. They use a diverse array of techniques of expression to create a universal visual language that allows international audiences to understand their performances. Large, moving objects, machines, fireworks, water effects, video projections and music all feature in their performances.
About the performance:
„Diaspora. Współczesna tragedia” [Diaspora. A contemporary tragedy] touches on the contemporary situation of migrants and displaced persons, caused, among others, by the (neo)colonial structures of exploitation in the global South, as well as by the ongoing war in Ukraine. “Diaspora…” is a contemporary interpretation of the classic tragedy by Euripides, “The Trojan Women” and seeks to shift the perspective, by looking at world events and conflicts through the eyes of women, refugees, the uninvolved and innocent.
The performance utilises expressive imagery and live music as well as video projections to refer to our individual and social responsibility not to close our eyes to war, exploitation, expulsions and crimes against our neighbours, but to put an end to all that. The performers use dance, physical theatre and singing to develop an expressive stage language relevant to the subject matter and show one of the most serious issues of the diaspora experience: the loss of language.
Saturday, July 8, 2023 / 22:00 / 50 min – D2 ǀ Tickets: 10 PLN (LINK)
Sunday, July 9, 2023 / 22:00 / 50 min – D2 ǀ Tickets: 10 PLN (LINK)
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Teatr Biuro Podróży „Kaspar” | Poland, Poznań
About the theatre company:
Teatr Biuro Podróży [The Travel Agency Theatre] has been working since 1988, with the founder and director Paweł Szkotak. In more than thirty years of artistic exploration, the company has developed its own method of working on the performances and a recognizable theatrical style, has prepared 22 original performances including 14 outdoor shows. Teatr Biuro Podróży takes up topics that are often uncomfortable and unpopular. They tell stories of war, death and violence. They provoke the audiences to take a position, to speak up, to express their views.
About the performance:
Kaspar Hauser is a historical figure. In his time, he was called the orphan of Europe, who, as a “wolf child”, was raised with no contact with other humans. He spent his childhood alone, locked in a small room. His only toy was a little wooden horse. When he appears unexpectedly in a square in Nuremberg one afternoon, to the surprise of the residents, all he can say is the word 'horse’. Kaspar doesn’t know who he is, he doesn’t know people, he doesn’t know anything. He is dependent on the good or bad will of the community in which he has appeared. Presented in the aesthetics of a simple folk tale transplanted into the past, Kaspar’s story shows how the social perception of a „stranger” affects the decisions and actions of the community.
The premiere of the show was developed as part of the Kaspar Machine project co-financed by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.
Saturday, July 8, 2023 / 23:15 / 60 min – E1
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Theater des Lachens in co-production with Teatr Animacji and Das Weite Theater „La Luna” (The Moon) | Poland/Germany
About the theatre companies:
The Theater des Lachens, whose name can be translated as „Laughter Theater”, is a German repertory comedy theatre, working in an old factory in Frankfurt on the Oder. Their programme extends from fairy tales, through contemporary literature, to Kleist’s essays and Bruno Schulz’s magical realism. The company creates a variety of productions, including stage comedies, cabarets, improv and many other theatrical forms. The work is often based on puppet theatre and theatre of the object.
Teatr Animacji [The Animation Theatre] was founded in Poznań in 1945. Over the years, reflecting the evolution of the company’s artistic exploration, it has changed its formula and its name several times. Today it is a puppet theatre, an actors’ theatre and a theatre of an object, distinguished from regular puppet theatres by the keen use of the experience and traditions of actors’ theatre, while at the same time standing in manifest opposition to it, because of their default use of puppets and objects. The constitutive factor of puppetry art is the process of animisation – the miracle of bringing to life – realized as stage play using conscious and deliberate animation. Hence the current name of the theatre.
The Das Weite Theater from Lichtenberg has gained an excellent reputation in the Berlin theatre landscape and for 30 years has been synonymous with professional puppetry and acting at the highest level. Their repertoire is enriched by guest performances by independent ensembles and companies originating from the Berlin cultural scene and their partnership with the Theater des Lachens from Frankfurt am Oder. Das Weite Theater also showcases their plays at numerous venues throughout Germany and is often a guest at international festivals abroad. Das Weite Theater aims to combine acting, puppetry and music on stage and make all those elements into equally important „performers” in a show. Doing that, the company tracks artistic paths far from established conventions.
About the performance:
„Aim for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll hit one of the neighbouring stars.”
Director Alexei Leliavski, working with seven puppeteers, transports the audience into a dreamy fantasy world. The show can be seen as a tribute to the era of silent cinema and the works of Georges Méliès. „La Luna” is an outdoor show without words. The main roles are played by puppets and characters from silent movies, which emerge to viewers directly from the silver screen. Positioned beyond time, space and dimension, they discover a whole new world. They aim at the moon. But what do they want to find there?
Mirages, cabaret dances, lightness, inspiring music – all this brings a promise of a poetic and revealing adventure.
Saturday, July 8, 2023 / 22:00 / 75 min – B2
Sunday, July 9, 2023 / 22:00 / 75 min – B2
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Lviv Voskresinnia Theatre „Ukraina. Testament Szewczenko” [Ukraina. Shevchenko’s Testament] | Ukraine
About the theatre company:
Lviv’s Voskresinnia Theatre was established in Lviv in 1990 following a wave of social transformations after Ukraine had regained its independence. Under the leadership of the experienced creator Yaroslav Fedoryshyn (1990-2020), a graduate of the Theatre Institute in Kharkiv and Moscow’s GITIS, young actors from various cities in Ukraine, who were not satisfied with the state-sponsored, slightly academic theatre culture of the time, decided to create a new scene together. The Voskresinnia Theatre quickly won the hearts of Lviv’s audiences by performing world drama. Step by step, they developed their own distinct stage formula, combining traditional, psychological acting with an innovative visual form.
About the performance:
„Ukraina. Testament Szewczenko” [Ukraina. Shevchenko’s Testament.] is the opening performance of the 25th International Festival of Open-Air and Street Theatres FETA. The story of Ukraine told through the prism of the life of Taras Shevchenko, a Ukrainian writer, poet, painter, camps’ prisoner, a spiritual leader of the Ukrainian people. Lviv artists will address the tragic experiences and situation of the Ukrainian people’s constant demands for state independence, so topical today again in Ukraine. The colourful spectacle uses stilts, mobile machines, burning stage sets and pyrotechnics.
Friday, July 7, 2023 / 22:00 / 60 min – Plac Zebrań Ludowych
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Fundacja Gra/nice „Bezimienny/Nieznany” [Nameless/Unknown] | Poland, Łódź
About the theatre company:
Fundacja Gra/nice is an alternative theatre that has been working since 2021. It includes artists who normally work in various areas of arts (theatre of the form, dance theatre, acrobatics, music). Their goal is to clash and link these worlds and create performances, artistic and social activities oscillating around topics that are difficult, highly charged, necessary to build social awareness in children, young people and adults.
About the performance:
The show „Bezimienny/Nieznany” [Nameless/Unknown] is a project that straddles the borders of puppet theatre, visual and physical theatre and aerial dance. It talks about the reasons and circumstances in which unnamed characters decide to leave their homes.
The performance is a form of a journey shared with the audience, during which a succession of migrant stories, locked in suitcases, emerge into the world, told without words, to the accompaniment of live music created using̨ instruments and everyday objects.
Saturday, July 8, 2023 / 20:30 / 60 min / (13+) – A2
Sunday, July 9, 2023 / 20:30 / 60 min / (13+) – A2
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Teatro Só „Sombras” (Shadows) | Portugal
About the theatre company:
Teatro Só is a Portuguese company based in Berlin. It creates multidisciplinary works combining circus arts, masks techniques, physical theatre, installations and visual arts. In their visually poetic theatre, the communication between the actor and the audience takes place without words, through the power of gestures. The artists focus primarily on social issues, taboos affecting all cultures and generations. Without moralising, they explore the educational aspect of street theatre, which they see as a social intervention with the belief that entertainment can and should influence, educate and make people think.
About the performance:
“Sombras” presents a reflection on the emotional experience of a of domestic violence survivor. „Shadows” is the result of long research involving visits to women’s shelters, conversations with survivors and consultations with psychologists. Instead of depicting violence, the artists decided to take a more intimate approach. The public becomes a witness to what is usually not discussed in the public sphere: the complexity of the experiences of domestic violence survivors. Theatrical staging of such a sensitive subject, performed on stilts with elaborate costumes, is an invitation to take an inner journey, an invitation to personal liberation and regaining one’s own space.
Saturday, July 8, 2023 / 19:00 / 35 min – B6
Sunday, July 9, 2023 / 19:00 / 35 min – B6
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Cia Cris Clown „Home” | Spain – Catalonia
About the theatre company:
Cia Cris Clown is Cristina Solé, an acrobat and clown who has been active in the performing arts world since 1998. She is considered one of the best Spanish clowning artists. Cristina Solé is one of those strange characters who teaches us that humour is simply drama seen from afar. She’s crazy, she’s a clown, she’s a histrion.
About the performance:
„Home” is a marriage comedy directed by Leandre Ribera – fast, exciting and fun! In a shabby house, a couple live in a painful routine, preoccupied with their daily affairs. Their mundanity is drama in the service of comedy. Cristina Solé and Juan Pablo Luján remind their audiences that loud laughter is a cure!
Saturday, July 8, 2023 / 16:00 / 40 min – B5
Sunday, July 9, 2023 / 15:00 / 40 min – B5
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Migro Theatre „Echa” [Echos] | Poland, Kraków
About the theatre company:
The company was established in 2019 in Krakow. Migro artists are actors who have been associated with the KTO Theatre for years and inspired by its artistic activities. Migro Theatre performs on stages made up of the streets, squares and plazas of small towns and large cities. In Migro performances, there are no words. There are gestures, dance and facial expressions, making up the language of theatre legible to every audience. The name “Migro” refers to the wandering nature of street theatre companies, but it also emphasizes the themes that Migro theatre artists are interested in: migrant communities, random encounters in our daily journey.
About the performance:
The performance is an impression on the theme of the Poland’s Eastern Borderlands. It tells the story of forgotten places, people, and the objects that remain after the people are gone. It refers to recollected memories, but also the memory of future generations.
The photographs, which will come to life before the eyes of the audience, will transport them to a world of many cultures, nationalities and religions. Stage movement, choreographed by Natalia Iwaniec, will take you on this journey using the Gaga, a unique movement language developed by Ohad Naharin. And the music, including regional songs, will bring other languages, sounds and words of prayer to the audience.
The performance is a story about the past and an invitation to look at our own roots and the role they play in our daily lives and in the modern world.
Sunday, July 9, 2023 / 17:00 / 50 min – B3
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Leandre Clown – “Fly Me to the Moon” | Spain – Catalonia
About the theatre company:
Leandre, or Leandre Ribera, born in Barcelona in 1966, is an international star and his practice has become a benchmark for street theatre and clowning. He is considered one of the best modern clowns in the world. He is an actor, director and co-creator of many performances and a founder of the La Tal theatre. For more than 20 years he has travelled the world with his poetic humour, inspired by silent movies, mime, gesture and absurd.
About the performance:
In a world where too much is happening, a clown’s show can be a pause, a sunny moment. „Fly me to the moon” is just such a moment, full of simple things: laughter, listening, surprise, fun. Leandre wants to take the audience to the sun, to the moon, beyond cynicism, beyond the whirlpool of everyday problems.
„Fly me to the moon” is a flying bike, wood, iron, dust, large shoes and hats almost covering the eyebrows. It’s a dream come true. It is the journey of two clowns to the moon.
Saturday, July 8, 2023 / 20:00 / 50 min – B1
Sunday, July 9, 2023 / 20:00 / 50 min – B1
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Joshua Monten Dance Company, „Jak robić rzeczy słowami” [How to Do Things with Words] | Switzerland
About the theatre company:
The Joshua Monten Dance Company was founded in 2012 by Joshua Monten, a Swiss-American choreographer and dancer from New York City. The ensemble has given hundreds of performances at festivals and in theatres around the world.
Joshua Monten regularly creates choreography for drama, opera, ballet, museums and for popularization programmes. His work as a choreographer is deeply rooted in encounters with diverse audiences and forms of artistic expression.
About the performance:
The unconventional dance performance „Jak robić rzeczy słowami” [How to do things with words] is a captivating duet occurring between language and movement, between the body and a written (visual) text.
How do you dance with text? What new meanings arise when dancers manipulate objects with words printed on them? The results range from simple to sublime. The printed signs are flat, and yet they add surprising depth to the dance. The choreography is rich in imaginative footwork, pulsating rhythms, delicious absurdity and playful wordplay.
„How to do things with words” is the first part of the „Counterfeit” trilogy, in which Joshua Monten Dance Company explores the theme of fakery and falsity.
Saturday, July 8, 2023 / 17:15 / 25 min – D1
Saturday, July 8, 2023 / 19:00 / 25 min – D1
Sunday, July 9, 2023 / 17:30 / 25 min – D1
Sunday, July 9, 2023 / 20:00 / 25 min – D1
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Instytut Teatru Przedmiotu „Noe” [Noah] | Poland, Kleszczele
About the theatre company:
Adam Walny’s original theatre has been working since 1995. During this time, it has performed at more than 300 festivals in the country and around the world. Adam Walny has created 18 original performances using pioneering techniques of theatre of the object: underwater marionettes, other puppets, manual cinema, figures-instruments, keyboard marionettes, multifunctional objects. Performances featuring Adam Walny’s puppet arrangements are staged by drama, musical, dance and mime theatres as well as traditional puppet theatres.
About the performance:
„Noe” is a performance about a conductor. He is faced with the task of conducting a concert from the score titled „The Flood”. Unfortunately, the Orchestra, terrified by the content of the score, escapes. The conductor is left alone with instruments and a disappointed audience. Provoked by the situation, he becomes a musician himself. He begins to use instruments whose sounds and words indicate the imminent end. The conductor tries to stop this end, delay it in time, using various ploys. Creating live history as well as live music. The audience is drawn into the game of delaying the end.
Saturday, July 8, 2023 / 18:00 / 40 min – B4 | PJM
Sunday, July 9, 2023 / 18:00 / 40 min – B4
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Teatro Due Mondi „Wall Cracks” | Italy
About the theatre company:
Teatro Due Mondi is an independent theatre group from Faenza, Italy, operating since 1979. It focuses on combining popular theatre with important themes from the surrounding world, involving socially marginalised groups in the creative process. They have performed in Europe, South America and Asia – more than 4,000 shows in 34 countries on 4 continents.
About the performance:
A show about walls that cannot be jumped over created by social divisions – individual boundaries that people put up because of mutual misunderstanding and fear of the unknown, sometimes through ignorance. „Wall Cracks” talks about the fact that only getting to know and understand the other person allows us to break down the walls that „can’t be jumped over”.
„Cracks”is the result of a long creative process that began eight years ago when the Faenza-based company produced „Borderless”, a theatre workshop with Italian non-professional actors and refugees who came at that time and are still arriving in Italy.
Saturday, July 8, 2023 / 18:00 / 60 min – E2
Sunday, July 9, 2023 / 18:15 / 60 min – E2
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Teatro Due Mondi „Fiesta”| Italy
Theatrical event:
„Fiesta” is a traveling show that turns the street into a South American fiesta with a Mediterranean atmosphere, inspired by the works of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It’s a jubilant parade with four-foot stilt walkers, actors in colourful costumes and papiermâché masks. The actors sing traditional Italian songs about love and rebellion accompanied by an accordion and tell short burlesque stories.
Friday, July 7, 2023 / 18:00 / 55 min – Main City
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Dansk Rakkerpak „Granica” [Border] | Denmark/Spain/Italy
About the theatre company:
Dansk Rakkerpak & Faster Cool is a theatre from the municipality of Næstved in Denmark, created in 2016 as a merger of the Dansk Rakkerpak and the younger Faster Cool companies. In addition to organising local activities such as the international street theatre festival “Street Cut”, the company tours Denmark and worldwide destinations. Their performances are known for their creativity, unusual ideas and strong emotional messages. They use elements of physical theatre, dance, and music to create a dynamic and engaging experience for audiences. They are appreciated by both children who play and participate in performances and adults who admire the company’s innovative approach to theatre for a young audience.
About the performance:
’Border’ is a tragicomic and universal play about refugees and border guards. It is a story told in a non-verbal, musical universe by an international cast consisting of two Danes, a Spaniard and an Italian.
Under foreign skies, in a distant land, at an unspecified moment in history, we meet a team of dedicated border guards. How does power dominate and change people’s minds? Why is it so easy to lose your humanity when you gain power? What is the price of having power? These and many more questions were asked by the theatre in the process of creating „Border”.
„We believe that humour is how we can tackle serious issues and lightly open up a path to a different kind of reflection in the audience. We believe in the power of laughter as a weapon of transformation.”
Sunday, July 9, 2023 / 16:00 / 50 min / (5+) – C2
Sunday, July 9, 2023 / 19:00 / 50 min / (5+) – C2
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Głowa mała „Cała naprzód!” [Full Ahead!] | Poland, Szczecin
About the theatre company:
The Głowa mała Theatre consists of Magdalena Gardas-Wasilewska and Karolina Sabat, drama educators with artistic passions. They have been working with children for many years. They treat them with respect and attention, giving them the opportunity to play creatively. In their work, they are guided by the words of Jan Dorman – a theatre educator: „It is important to put the child in situations that allow them to rediscover the extraordinary in things that are completely ordinary.”
About the performance:
In Gdańsk there is sea, there is wind from the Baltic, screaming seagulls, masts of sailing ships and a whiff of adventure. That’s why the Głowa mała Theatre calls, “Full ahead!” and takes the little Sea Wolves on a magical, theatrical and marine journey where they will learn to enchant the everyday with a string or a pebble, a blade of grass and some sand. The artists familiarise the youngest with art and inspire them to play and sing on their own.
„Cała naprzód!” [Full ahead!] is a performance for children aged 1 to 5 years and their adult carers.
After the performance, children will have the opportunity to take part in a group rhythm-and-movement play.
Sunday, July 9, 2023 / 14:00 / 45 min / (1+) – C1 | PJM
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Głowa mała „Kapu Kap” [Drip drip]| Poland, Szczecin
About the performance:
„Kapu kap” [Drip drip] is the first performance created by the Głowa mała theatre. It is a performance for the youngest (children can watch it from as early as one year old) and it is based on playing with everyday objects. It presents the phenomenon of rain in a simple and fun way. After the performance, children will have the opportunity to take part in a group rhythm-and-movement play.
Saturday, July 8, 2023 / 15:00 / 45 min / (1+) – C1 | PJM
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Teatr w Blokowisku GAK Plama „Hop w Kosmos!” [Leap into Space!] | Poland, Gdańsk
About the theatre company:
Teatr w Blokowisku [The Theatre from the Blocks Estate] is a theatrical series by the Gdańsk Archipelago of Culture operating in the Plama GAK, and is a friendly and inspiring space for the residents of the Zaspa district of Gdańsk and for the student community. It responds to the challenges of the surrounding reality, giving space for young culture creators to act, and fills a gap on the Tricity cultural map with high-quality theatre for young audiences. It operates as an impresario and produces performances for children, young people and adults.
About the performance:
For children from 3 years of age, a musical and educational story about the Solar System aimed at the youngest children and the adults close to them.
An open-air version of the much-loved Teatr w Blokowisku musical and educational performance about Space. The Agent Gravity is tired and hasn’t gone to work, causing the entire solar system to disintegrate. It is only thanks to her commitment and songs that it is possible to return all the planets to their right spots. What does the universe look like? What galaxy do we live in? Is the Milky Way made of milk? You will find answers to these and other questions if you do “Leap into Space!” with us.
Saturday, July 8, 2023 / 17:00 / 40 min / (3+) – C1
Sunday, July 9, 2023 / 17:00 / 40 min / (3+) – C1 | PJM
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Teatr Czwarte Miasto „Mały gotyk” [Little Gothic] | Poland, Gdynia
About the theatre company:
Fundacja Teatru Czwarte Miasto [The Fourth City Theatre Foundation] was established in 2013 in Gdańsk. It was founded by Dariusz Majchrzak and Dorota Sadowska. The artists combine various stage forms: drama, puppet theatre, shadow theatre, elements of mime, cabaret and musical, enriching them with multimedia projections, audience participation and topical discussions. During their 7 years of activity, on various stages, they staged 21 premieres of theatrical plays. In total, they performed 800 shows in Poland and abroad, including in Germany, Romania, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and the United States.
About the performance:
Can bricks be fun? What about Gothic architecture? Anything is possible in the theatre! “Mały gotyk” [Little Gothic] is a family show combining the beauty of Gothic architecture with a sense of humour. The show is a theatre of form, where audiences of all ages will find something pleasing to the eye and ear. The show uses elements of puppet theatre, dance theatre, mime theatre and commedia dell’arte. Surprising twists, innovative forms and simplicity – that’s the Teatr Czwarte Miasto’s recipe for just under an hour of fun.
Saturday, July 8, 2023 / 16:00 / 40 min / (5+) – A1 | PJM
Sunday, July 9, 2023 / 16:00 / 40 min / (5+) – A1