Vidy-Lausanne Theatre's "The Waiting Room" (Switzerland), directed by Krystian Lupa
The annual Dialog Festival has already gained the renown of one as the most significant artistic events in Poland and Europe. Wrocław, in its thousand-year history, has a rich tradition in the domain of intercultural dialogue by examining the nature of tolerance in today's world
Since its first edition in 2001, the event demonstrates that today’s theatre, as one of the most interesting means of human communication, can be an intermediary in mutual, often difficult, understanding of various cultural and artistic options; that it bears one of the vital ideas of European humanism: the idea of tolerance.
Festival director Krystyna Meissner quotes Zygmunt Bauman's brilliant analysis of the function of culture in times of liquid modernity, which purports that the superficial TOLERANCE of OTHERNESS, so prevalent today, “is not enough”. Bauman notes that tolerance – bandied about all the time and everywhere – becomes a tool that makes it easier for us to hide our SENSE OF SUPERIORITY, our AVERSION TO THE OTHER eagerly concealed under the cloak of political correctness. Bauman warns that INDIFFERENCE TO DIVERSITY and ELIMINATION of the subject of OTHERNESS from the public discourse – a phenomenon increasingly visible among intellectuals, artists and politicians – means that our culture loses what should matter most to it: interest in and sensitivity to UNCOMMONNESS. Tolerance ossifies stereotypes, Uncommonness incapacitates them.
Uncommonness is not just the motto of the 6th Dialog-Wrocław Festival. It is, first of all, a perspective from which we would like to view our reality. The productions to be presented during the 6th Dialog-Wrocław Festival show uncommonness as a sphere of freedom, as a source of individualism and independence. It seems to us that presenting such an artistic attitude may be particularly significant in today’s Poland, in which we can observe an increasing polarisation of the public debate.
The difficulties of maintaining the balance between ordinariness and uncommonness are analysed by the directors invited to the Dialog-Wrocław Festival. They include artists who through their work have been influencing the aesthetics of modern theatre for years (Romeo Castellucci, Ivo van Hove, Alain Platel or Krystian Lupa), as well as those who are just developing their artistic language and whose productions stem from a lack of consent for the current form of the public debate (Klemm, Marco Layera, Gianina Carbunariu, Oliver Frljić and Piotr Sieklucki). The Festival is an opportunity to meet directors who, playing with theatrical conventions, look for a form of individual dialogue with the modern world (Krystyna Meissner, Cezary Tomaszewski, Zoltán Balázs or Paola Giannini) as well as those who, going beyond the theatrical convention, try to remove the border between the private and the public, between the artistic and the autobiographical (Emma Dante, Romeo Castellucci or Alain Platel).
Dialog opens with a performance of "The Overcoat" by Teatro Milagros from Chile. The show only seems to be a small production. Its preparation, however – owing to the company’s decision to make all elements themselves from scratch – took two years of painstaking work. Special effects and animated projections support this kind-hearted and delicate production that goes deep into the human soul, using a simple language. The subject is always in fashion, because every human being desires his or her own overcoat.
It’s a jewel you cannot miss. A strong applause closes each performance of The Overcoat, a staging prepared with the precision of a artful goldsmith that is able to enrapture both grown-ups and children. Many puppets are involved in the production, but without any doubt the most impressive is the protagonist, Akakiy Akakievich Kamashkin. This tall, thin, large-nosed puppet makes you feel a human being is looking at you. His delicate movements make us forget that there are actors manipulating him. The troupe conveys universal values such as tolerance, democracy and justice. They also tell us that there is a chance for achieving a better world.
- Marietta Santi, La Hora
Teatro Milagros was established in 2005 in an attempt to build a place where drama, design, directing as well as crafts dedicated for children and adults could meet. The Overcoat was the first production of the company’s four women members. Enchanted with Gogol’s work, Paola Giannini, Aline Kuppenheim, Paula García and Loreto Moya decided that a puppet would be the main protagonist of their first production. At the moment, members of the company are working on their second production, Walking the Tightrope by Mike Kenny.
Teatr Współczesny in Szczecin's "Judith", directed by Klemm (Poland), a modern take on the biblical tale of Judith, Sud Costa Occidentale's "Ziza Castle" and "Dancers" (Italy), two parts of Emma Dante's Trilogy of the Glasses - a treatise on illness and healing, Teatr Provisorium's "The Brothers Karamazov" (Poland) and "Similacro" by Compañia La Resentida (Chile) - a narrative of history and the cultivation of South American identities.
Vidy-Lausanne Theatre's "The Waiting Room" (Switzerland), directed by Krystian Lupa, has been called the "most radical of Lupa’s productions to date. Outrageously dark. Of almost choking intensity" by Jean-Pierre Thibaudat. Les ballets C Dela B (Belgium) present "Gardenia" - a moving glimpse into the emotional lives of transvestite and trangender cabaret dancers in Barcelona.
As in previous editions, meetings with the artists, exhibitions, projections and workshops for young critics will accompany the 16 performances constituting the festival programme; a week of intense presentations will be closed with a discussion panel.
Organiser: Współczesny Theatre in Wrocław
http://www.dialogfestival.pl/
This event is part of the Attention Culture! Cultural Programme of the 2011 Polish EU Presidency.