"Planet Lem", dir. by Paweł Szkotak, courtesy of Teatr Biuro Podróży
The festival features open-air and street theatre productions which draw free inspirations from renown literary pieces. The organisers have invited plays based on the works of Stanisław Lem, Miguel Cervantes, Moliere, Sholem Aleichem, and Federico Garcia Lorca
It has been the festival's tradition to show productions in various locations and settings specific to the town of Lublin. Among the venues of this year's events are: the circus tent at Litewski square, the city walkway on Krakowskie Przedmiescie and the Old Town, the space in front Galeria Centrum shopping centre, and the outdoor park areas around Łokietek and Litewski squares. The main goal of the festival which the organisers stress is reaching a wide audience and also addressing chance passers-by. In the words of Mazurkiewicz:
Street theatre, when going out into the living space of city, has to replace words with symbols, movement, machinery, dolls, or music. Litewski square will be this year's central venue. Inside and around a huge tent, we will be showing eight performances from five different countries.
The following grand out door productions from Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Belarus and Ukraine are on stage in Lublin
- The Hungarian commedia dell'arte style production "The Miser" (partly performed on stilts) by The Winged Dragon. In 2009, the production received the Hungarian Pierrot prize for best street-theatre performance in Hungary
- The new performance of Teatr Biuro Podróży, "Planet Lem" inspired by the prose of Stanisław Lem's, his unique, witty and poignant diagnosis of the contemporary world, and his reflection on the relations between technological progress and limitations of the human race
- A performance of four mimes of the Czech Tante Horse, inspired by the relation between Federico Garcia Lorca and his friend Salvador Dali
- "Black Circus for six pianos and twelve actors" / "Czarny cyrk na sześć fortepianów i dwunastu aktorów" by the Poznań-based Teatr Strefa Ciszy
- An out-door production of The Academic Drama Theatre from Belarus, entitled "The Dream of Don Kichote" / "Marzenie o Don Kichocie"
- A street- parade production, "The Remains of Great Dreams" / "Okruchy wielkich snów" by the Czech V.O.S.A, which has been shown during the Beijing Expo.
The "Neighbours" Festival of Theatres from Central Europe was initiated in 1996 by the Lublin-based actor and director Witold Mazurkiewicz (presently artisitc director of Kompania "Teatr"). The review that the festival consists of has always been selected in a manner that would allow for the meeting of richly varied traditions and approaches to the theatre.
Works presented at the festival can been divided into three main categories: showings of institutionalised theatres and "underground" theatre companies, open-air productions (including circus-like pieces), and plays for children. The review is a competition, and laureates who receive Pearls for the Neighbours are selected within their genres by a jury. The jury for this year's edition of the festival is composed of actors: Piotr Gajos, Jarosław Tomica and Kinga Waligóra.
Centrum Kultury / Cultural Centre in Lublin
ul. Narutowicza 32, rm. 205, 20-016 Lublin
Director of the Festival: Witold Mazurkiewicz
tel./fax (81) 536 03 18
www.festiwal-sasiedzi.pl
For more information on the festival, see: www.festiwal-sasiedzi.pl
Source: press release, www.festiwal-sasiedzi.pl