Branko Potočan & Fourklor: POCKETS FULL OF STARS Physical theatre

A performance about common people with tender hearts that contain sedimentary deposits of their lives. Many of these people lead an ordinary life. They seem content but appearances can be deceiving. Therefore, their innermost secrets start coming out. These are short stories related offhandedly like snapshots of life. The red thread of the show is rope. Its physical presence is figuratively reassuring: the rope ties, intertwines and unties. As a metaphor, as an imaginary reality. Life’s a circus, and circus a reflection of life. (more…)

Via Negativa: THE NINTH

Photo: Marcandrea

Gallop through Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. From absolutism to socialism… From defeatism to optimism… From populism to vulgarism… Welcome in the stable of humanism.

The Ninth runs through the entire sound landscape of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. On the one side a “masterpiece of the western civilization:” “Giant and complex.” “Sublime.” “Striking example of human spirit.” “Triumphant vision of brotherhood.” Beethoven’s 9th. On the other side us: Naked and suspicious. Nothing great about us. Nothing triumphant. Not sublime but explicit. Not complex but reduced. Horses. (more…)

EVOLUTIONARY SLIP

Photo: Janko Oven

Popular sci-fi stage documentary based on a novel Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut.

Evolution is blind and stupid. Its direction is not predetermined, but rather randomly determined by the environment. In the course of evolution, an animal species may become ever more complex or more simple, but in any case it is becoming better adapted to its habitat. From the perspective of human life, evolution is happening slowly and does not directly affect the individual. Its effects are only visible over many generations. (more…)

Kitch: THE OATH

Photo: Nada Žgank

Tonight, dreams are allowed. Tomorrow is a new day.
What happens when two newcomers from the Balkans take this epic wisdom dead serious? The Oath will give you all, yet demanding nothing from you.
Welcome to the Kitch Kafana, and let the party start! (more…)

Deborah Pearson: HISTORY, HISTORY, HISTORY (GB, Canada)

Photo: archive Deborah Pearson

Wednesday, 23 November 2016 at 7pm
Second Gymnasium amphitheatre

Free entrance.

The performance is in English.

On 23 October 1956, revolution broke out in Hungary with student demonstrations, as a spontaneous rise against the communist government and Soviet hegemony. Many perished during the following insurrection, over 200,000 emigrated, among them the grandfather of Deborah Pearson; an actor appearing in a film comedy / political satire about the Hungarian national football team which was incidentally to be premiered on that very day … the day Soviet tanks rolled into Budapest.

History History History is a nuanced, comical yet painful tale in which global momentum collides with personal history. Pearson builds upon the film farce featuring a simple pen peddler who is, due to a series of outlandish coincidences, mistaken for the football superstar Ferenc Puskáš, to a degree so extreme he is contracted to play for a South American dictator (tycoon). There’s more to the funny piece than meets the eye, though. Through a brilliant interplay of reality and illusion, Pearson illuminates the subversive piece as a “commentator” exploring its satirizing of the tyranny of dictatorship, the struggles of a diaspora descendent weighed down by history, the spirit of the times, by familial tragedy and linguistic embarrassment. A Hungarian football comedy from 1956 subliminally weaving the story of a writer who loses his name, an actor who loses his voice, a nation that loses its revolution.

The performance is followed by a talk with the author.

90 minutes

Author: Deborah Pearson
Dramaturgy: Daniel Kitson
Artistic advisors: Tania El Khoury and Laura Danneqin
The project was developed with the assistance of the National Theatre Studio
Production: A House on Fire in partnership with Theatre Garonne (Toulouse, FR) and BIT Teatergarasjen (Bergen, Norway)

Beton Ltd.: ICH KANN NICHT ANDERS

Photo: Nada Žgank

Tuesday, 22 November 2016 at 6pm and 9pm
Narodni Dom cultural centre, Maribor

The performance is in Slovene with English surtitles.

The creative poetics of group Beton Ltd. (Katarina Stegnar, Branko Jordan, Primož Bezjak) is marked by a search for personal interventions into global issues – their position is often one of performers –, the exploration of new, hybrid performing arts formats and mastery over a range of techniques. Ich kann nicht anders is their fifth performance, whose counterpoint between complete intimacy and echoes of global events plays reminiscence to the thesis of Srećko Horvat that a true revolution is always a revolution of everything, the complete range of social relationships, even those most intimate.

The world all around is overwhelmed with happening, saturated with change. If a single constant can be identified, it is uncertainty. We sense new currents yet their trajectory remains obscure. One possible strategy to combat the deafening noise of the world is a retreat into the inner sanctum. Not surrender, but the defense of one’s own intimate realm from the outside bedlam. A repositioning into intimacy, where freedom is possible and utopia is – now.

75 minutes

Concept and direction: Beton Ltd.
Performers: Katarina Stegnar, Branko Jordan, Primož Bezjak
Music: Dead Tongues
Set design: sonda4, Toni Soprano
Costume: Mateja Benedetti
Sound design: Jure Vlahovič
Dramaturgy assistant: Urška Brodar
Head technician: Andrej Petrovčič
Technician: Martin Lovšin
Executive producer: Maja Vižin
Production: Bunker, Ljubljana

 The performance Ich kann nicht anders will be presented within the framework of the performing arts programme “Nagib na oder” 2016/2017. (www.nagib.si)

Mark Požlep: STRANGER THEN PARADISE (Slovenia)

Photo: Glej, The Theatre
21st November at 7pm
Second Gymnasium amphitheatre

Free entrance.

Two years ago, the chiefly visual artist Mark Požlep embarked on what might, at first glance, seem like a rather quaint tour: alongside pianist Igor Feketija they visited a number of retirement homes across the countries of former Yugoslavia. There, they performed for the elderly a set of Yugoslavian music hits from the fifties and sixties of the past century.

Mark first presented Stranger than Paradise in gallery form, for which he received the OHO Group Award in 2016, and is now adapting the project for theatre.

Stranger than Paradise is a documentary performance, something between a concert, a travelogue and a friendly gathering. It speaks of aging, of common and separate fates, of the reestablishment of broken relationships and shattered communities. It speaks of a generation that lived out nearly their entire lives in the former common socialist state, and of one that only experienced it in its greenest youth. It speaks of man and his eternal longing for change, his incredible capacity for creation and destruction. It speaks of Marko as a person, and each one of us as a human being. Stranger than Paradise

The performance is followed by a talk with the authors.

The performance is in Slovene with English surtitles.

65 minutes

Concept: Mark Požlep
Performers: Mark Požlep, Igor Feketija
Dramaturgy and videography: Jure Novak
Set design: Meta Grgurevič
Costume: Dajana Ljubičić
Lighting design, head technician: Grega Mohorčič
Executive production: Barbara Poček
Production: Glej, The Theatre 

ScriptedReality: THE PIECE CONCERNING THE QUESTION OF PURPOSEFULNESS (DE)

Photo: ScriptedReality

Friday, August 26th, 9.30 pm
The Old Power Station – Elektro Ljubljana

ScriptedReality is an open collective, appearing on this occasion with a line-up consisting of Tilman Aumüller, Christopher Krause, Arne Salasse and Ruth Schmidt. The collective features members of various backgrounds who originally met in Giessen, a global centre for aspiring theatre contributors. Their name references a TV genre, appropriated by the creative squad to be mirrored into a contradiction of its essential ideological narrative.

In the performance, one they refer to as a theatre essay, the collective addresses the purpose of arts and economics, questioning whether they have an external purpose or appear intrinsically self-serving. The subject matter is the economic doctrine or philosophy of Friedrich Hayek, its consequences on the contemporary state of the world. Following an introductory explanation, the collective (along with the audience) embarks on a joint exorcism of Hayek’s doctrine and the painting of a new plan. A bold strategy, fit for young lions in an era where the dominant narrative of neoliberal economics presents itself as immutable.

Authors: Tilman Aumüller, Christopher Krause, Arne Salasse, Ruth Schmidt
Dramaturgical advice: Jacob Bussmann
Translation: Aran Kleebaur
Co-production: Hessische Theater Akademie, Künstlerhaus Mousonturm, ScriptedReality
Translation into Slovene: Ajda Šoštarič

100 minutes

The performance is in English with Slovene surtitles.

Free tickets, but you can support our festival with voluntary contributions. More information and ticket booking: +386 51 269 906, info@bunker.si.

Beton Ltd.: ICH KANN NICHT ANDERS (SI)

Photo: Toni Soprano

Friday, August 26th, 8 pm PREMIERE
Saturday, August 27th, 9 pm
ŠD Tabor

The authorial poetics of collective Beton Ltd. (Katarina Stegnar, Branko Jordan, Primož Bezjak) is characterized by a search for intimate entries into the global issues – their position is often personal – a search for new, hybrid forms of performing, and a mastery of performing techniques. Ich kann nicht anders is their fifth performance, where the counterpoint between the total intimacy and the echoes of the global events reminds us of a thesis by Croatian philosopher Srećko Horvat, that the real revolution is always a revolution of everything, all social interactions, even the most intimate ones.

The world around us is saturated with change, and if there is one constant, it is currently uncertainty. We anticipate changes, but it is not yet clear what they might be. One of the possible strategies to combat the deafening noise of the world is to retreat into one’s own world. Not to surrender, but to defend one’s own intimate territory against the outside world. A retreat into intimacy, where freedom is possible and where utopia is – now.

Devised and directed by: Beton Ltd.
Performers: Katarina Stegnar, Branko Jordan, Primož Bezjak
Music: Dead Tongues
Scenography: sonda4, Toni Soprano
Costume design: Mateja Benedetti
Sound design: Jure Vlahovič
Dramaturgical collaborator: Urška Brodar
Technical director: Andrej Petrovčič
Technical collaborator: Martin Lovšin
Executive producer: Maja Vižin
Produced by: Bunker, Ljubljana
The performance was made possible by: Ministrstvo za kulturo Republike Slovenije, Mestna občina Ljubljana
With help of: Elektro Ljubljana, d.d., Slovensko mladinsko gledališče
Thanks to: GT22, Športno društvo Tabor, Aljoša Cetinski, Mini Teater, Uroš Kaurin, Nathalie Horvat

75 minutes

Performance is in Slovene with English translation.

Free tickets, but you can support our festival with voluntary contributions. More information and ticket booking: +386 51 269 906, info@bunker.si.

No!Training Lab: VARIATIONS TO SLOWNESS: TIME-OUT 2 (SI)

Photo: Sunčan Stone

Thursday, August 25th, 9 pm
The Old Power Station – Elektro Ljubljana

The team of the performance Variations to Slowness: TIME OUT 2 coalesced around the creative and exploratory process sparked by Katja Legin. Within the framework of the No!Training Lab, the authors, all of them accomplished Slovene dancers, choreographers and performers, engage in dialogue with the novel Slowness by Milan Kundera in a three-year-long multi-phase work of art.

Slowness was the first novel Milan Kundera wrote in his second language, French, launching him into the unexplored terrain of »exile arithmetic«. The collective of the performance likewise ventures to lands unknown, a new language, undertaking the challenge of staging a novel in dance performance form. At times, they enter the novel’s narrative, as if possessing the spirit of the characters and the scenes, yet never sliding into the banality of enacting the story, illustrating the characters or recounting their fates. Instead, what they trace are the dynamics of the protagonists’ longings, their internal motors, and their constantly elusive pleasures. On the very axis of slowness-quickness, Kundera, and to an even greater extent the performance, materialize the issue of pleasure.

Authors and performers: No!training Lab (Barbara Kanc, Barbara Ribnikar, Jan Rozman, Kaja Lorenci, Katja Legin, Nataša Živković)
Live music: Joži Šalej
Sound design: SZ3
Lighting design: Tomi Janežič
Costume design consultant: Marina SremacScenography and costume design: No!training Lab
Produced by: Studio za raziskavo umetnosti igre
Partners: Zavod Federacija, Španski Borci, PTL, Flota, Nagib

70 minutes

The performance is in English.

Free tickets, but you can support our festival with voluntary contributions. More information and ticket booking: +386 51 269 906, info@bunker.si.