Matija Ferlin: STAGING A PLAY: THE GLASS MENAGERIE

Photo: Nada Žgank

In his new creation Staging a Play: The Glass Menagerie, Matija Ferlin continues to mine the interzone between the abstracted dancing body and the conventions of the theatrical. For the first time Ferlin works from a source text, The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, a play belonging to the theatrical cannon. When using a dramatic text as a source, the speech act is usually understood as the dominant signifier in the performing code. Stripping the performers of their ability to create a stage statement using the voice and the talking apparatus, this research begins with bodies in motion creating physical memories of the play and the intentions written in it. Ferlin and his group of four dancers navigate a near impossible task where the theatre is reinvented anew through the potential of the body versus text. Space will provide the ground for the tensions between questioning theatrical conventions and the unfolding of new imaginations.

“Last year, while working on Franz Grillparzer’s play as a choreographer and stage movement advisor, I caught myself thinking: We read the text, we say the text. Does the written word always need to be performed through the spoken word when working on a play? Can the body find another apparatus within to articulate the spoken word? Can the secondary tool in conventional theatre become the primary? I should cast some dancers in a play to find out.”
Matija Ferlin

»The performance is based on the play The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams. Presented by special arrangement with The University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee, USA.»

Concept and direction: Matija Ferlin
Performance and choreography: Loup Abramovici, Anja Bornšek, Maja Delak, Matija Ferlin, Žigan Krajnčan
Dramaturgy: Goran Ferčec
Set design: Mauricio Ferlin
Music: Luka Prinčič
Costumes: Matija Ferlin

Lighting and technical direction: Saša Fistrić
Design: Tina Ivezić
Photography: Nada Žgank
Translations: Katja Kosi
Slovene language editing: Melita Silič
English language editing: Ame Henderson
Administration: Nina Janež
Executive producer: Sabina Potočki

Production: Emanat
Co-production: Matija Ferlin
Partners: Bunker, Ljubljana / The Old Power Station – Elektro Ljubljana, Mediterranean Dance Center – San Vincenti, Croatia, Pre-School Education and Grammar School Ljubljana
Financial support: Ministry of Culture RS and Municipality of Ljubljana
Media support: Mladina, Radio Študent

Tickets: 10 €, 7 € (pupils, students, elderly people)

Photo: Nada Žgank