Training difficult vocal techniques for over a decade allowed this group to be the only one in the world to be able to perform Georgian funeral songs and hymns from Sardinia. Invited by the theatre to collaborate on the production were musicians from different traditions in Asia Minor, Anatolia and Iran. The most notable of their guests was Aram Kerovpyan who came from Istanbul and is a recognised master singer of the Armenian cathedral in Paris.
Jarosław Fret, director of the Grotowski Institute which oversees the theatre, revealed that one of the goals of the show is to "break the silence" the enshrouds the Armenian genocide. The show touches on issues that deal with bringing up painful memories and also attempts to identify and name the place held by current generations in accordance with the past.
The ZAR Theatre was established after a series of trips to Georgia between 1999 and 2003 and takes its name from a song performed at Georgian funerals in the north-western part of the country. The play is a major component of a broader project under the same title. In preparation for the project the company travelled on research expeditions to Istanbul, Yerevan and Jerusalem. Their efforts culminate in a production that features songs in 10 languages, staged around 16 four-meter high columns that symbolise the interior of an abandoned church. In addition to the theatre spectacle the project will also feature an open-air photography exhibition that documents the history and culture of the Armenian people.
More information can be found on the institute’s website.
Sources: pap, Grotowski Institute, translation: SMG 15/11/2013