English

WELCOME TO THE 10th SWEDISH THEATRE BIENNIAL!

2011 the Swedish Theatre Bienniel is held in Gävle May 11 – May 15. It will be arranged by Swedish ITI in co-operation with Folkteatern i Gävleborg. Swedish and international performances, lectures and workshops will be presented. A key word is Change! Approximately 1500 people will visit the host town during the festival’s 5 days.

The Swedish Theatre Biennial is held every second year and is a festival for Swedish Theatre performances, seminars, master classes etc. A jury of critics selects the most interesting Swedish productions from the past two years, which are presented during the festival. The biennial is both a meeting place for theatre professionals and a public festival. The first theatre biennial was arranged in Stockholm in 1993.

Here you’ll find a list of the performances. Some will be subtitled or translated and some will have a summery in English. Within shortly a list of English seminars will be presented.

PLEASE CONTACT US FOR HELP WITH REGISTRATION: INFO@TEATERUNIONEN.SE

PRESENTATION OF THE JURY AND THE SELECTED PERFORMANCES

THE JURY
The theatre, the audience and the theatre critic are constantly engaged in an ongoing exchange. This exchange will be expressed in numerous ways during the Theatre Biennale in Gävle 2011. To compliment to this exchange we have been searching for interesting examples of contemporary Swedish theatre.
We’ve observed how actual events in the society at large have found a variety of expressions on stage – a theatre that goes out and asks questions or one that builds on a foundation of documentary material. We’ve kept our eyes peeled for new forms that bridge theatre, dance and musical traditions or deconstruct classical works. We’ve sought out theatre that thinks and feels, a unification of sentiment and intellect, and we’ve strived to comb the entire country for performances for all ages.

The productions selected to play the 2011 Theatre Biennale were chosen from work performed during 2009 and 2010 by a jury consisting of six theatre critics representing a variety of media. One or two “scouts “ were also involved in the selection process. One particular thank you for production scouting goes out to Rikard Loman, Dagens Nyheter.

MAINA ARVAS /Freelance, Nummer, Dagens Nyheter
MARIA EDSTRÖM /Sveriges Radio (Swedish National Radio)
KARIN HELANDER /Svenska Dagbladet, professor of Theatre Sciences
LIS HELLSTRÖM SVENINGSON /freelance, Göteborgs-Posten
JOHAN HILTON /Expressen
LARS RING /Svenska Dagbladet

*Johan Hilton did not participate in the decision regarding No Tears for Queers

Information in English: Programme
Timetable in English: Timetable

DE RÖDA SKORNA (The red shoes) – STOCKHOLMS STADSTEATER SKÄRHOLMEN

FOTO: MARKUS GÅRDER

A young orphan girl is given a pair of shiny, red shoes. This is everything she ever dreamed of. She puts them on her feet and immediately begins to dance. With the red shoes on her feet she floats. But when she wants to stop dancing, wants to take the shoes off, she finds that she can’t. They are stuck.
The Red Shoes is a music and mime performance based on the Hans Christian Andersson tale with the same name. This story about a little girl and her magic dancing shoes is about growing up, about forming and fostering and then finally finding the courage to revolt against accepted norms and find ones own way in life.

The jury’s motivation: The Red Shoes is a unique and headstrong interpretation of H.C. Andersson’s story; without words yet with a rich vocabulary of movement, dance and featuring Niklas Brommare’s congenial musical score. Performers Siri Hamari and Emil Almén offer here a delicious piece of stage candy, wonderfully expressive and marvelously humorous.

BY Carolina Frände, Mats Kjellbye, Åsa Lindholm in collaboration with the ensemble
DIRECTED BY Carolina Frände
DRAMATURGE Mats Kjellbye
COMPOSER Niklas Brommare
SET AND COSTUMES Jenny Kronberg
MAKE-UP AND MASKS Carina Saxenberg
SOUND DESIGN Markus Åberg
LIGHT DESIGN Lina Benneth
PERFORMERS Emil Almén. Niklas Brommare, Siri Hamari

For children from 5 years of age. Duration: 45 minutes, no intermission
Premiered at Stockholm Stadsteater – Skärholmen 20 March 2010
Author’s agent: Colombine Teaterförlag

MAN SKA JU VARA TVÅ (You’re Supposed to be Two) – NORRBOTTENSTEATERN
English subtitles on some of the performances

FOTO: ANDERS ALM

“A house isn’t a home without a woman in it…” “You’r supposed to be two. That’s the natural thing. Someone to straighten up the candles in the candlesticks. That’s the way life is supposed to be. I’m longing for love.
About the want of love, the longing, the lonely men that inhabit the interior of Sweden’s far North. About their search for a companion and their dreams of the right woman.

The jury’s motivation: Norrbottensteatern uses scientific methods to chart the human longing for love. Social anthropologist Lissa Nordin’s dissertation exploring the plight of lonely middle-aged men in West Bothnia’s interior is the point of departure for this entertaining tour of discovery. A landscape where men dream of togetherness and confirmed masculinity.
This is daily life theatre featuring kitchen table hopes and dancehall aspirations, brimming with warmth and tender poetry.

BY Erik Norberg, loosely adapted from Lissa Nordin’s book with the same name.
DIRECTED BY Ana Azcárate
SET AND COSTUMES Åke Candell
PERFORMERS Therese Lindberg, Mikael Odhag, Karin Paulin Ek, musician Lars Paulin

The play is based on the social anthropologist Lissa Nordin’s research and field work among single men in West Bothnia’s interior.
Approx. 1 hour and 15 mins. Without intermission.
Premiered 28th of February 2009 at Norrbottensteatern in Luleå.

KOM TA MIN HAND (Come, Take my Hand) – FOLKTEATERN I GÄVLEBORG

FOTO: MATS BÄCKER

“My bosom’s lord sits lightly in his throne; And all this day an unaccustom’d spirit lifts me above the ground with cheerful thoughts.” “Oh, woeful, woeful, woeful day. Most lamentable day! Most woeful day that ever, ever I did yet behold!” From Romeo and Juliet.
Birgitta Egerbladh’s inspiration for Kom ta min hand comes from the ensemble and from a few of William Shakespeare’s best-known dramas. Texts from the late 16th and early 17th century meet modern man in the optimistic 1960’s, when anything was possible. Egerbladh packs both laughter and tears in a tragicomic dance theatre production about love and death.

The jury’s motivation: In the Scandinavian melancholy that permeates Birgitta Egerbladh’s world there is ample room both for pain and passion. When she joins hands with Shakespeare on the pathways of love, tenderly transporting us across time and space, everything is in full bloom: through the rush of young lust to the hopeful confidence of mature love. This gesamtkunstverk is a theatrical adventure that causes the very air in the voluminous Gas Bell to vibrate and makes the audience dizzy with joy.

BY Birgitta Egerbladh
TEXTS FROM William Shakespeare
IN TRANSLATIONS BY Göran o Eriksson, Britt G Hallqvist, Jan Mark, Mats Huldén, Lars Huldén, Lena R Nilsson, Sture Pyk, Allan Bergstrand, Carl A Hagberg
DIRECTION AND CHOREOGRAPHY Birgitta Egerbladh
DRAMATURGE Marie Persson Hedenius
SET DESIGN Peter Lundquist
COSTUMES Annsofi Nyberg
MAKE-UP Janina Rolfart
MUSIC Birgitta Egerbladh, Görgen Antonsson, Lisa Eriksson and others
LIGHT DESIGN Patrik Bogårdh
SOUND DESIGN Mikael Andersson
PERFORMERS Anna Andersson, Görgen Antonsson, Lisa Eriksson, Björn Johansson, Mats Jäderlund, Arabella Lyons, Martin Pareto, Bai Tao, Alexandra Zetterberg

3 hrs. including intermission. Premiered 13th of February 2010 in the Little Gas Bell, Gävle.

TRÖSTAR JAG DIG NU? / AM I COMFORTING YOU NOW? – UNGA KLARA
English subtitles on some of the performances

FOTO: PETRA HELLBERG

What do the grown-ups do when the children play adult games? What do the kids do when grown-ups resemble children? What do we do with all our longings that are impossible to fulfill?

Unga Klara, collaborating with people living and working in Tyresö, examines our survival strategies, posing a provocative question: Do you have to have contact with other people?

The jury’s motivation: Suzanne Osten’s production of Ann-Sofie Bárány’s play was a beautiful farewell to the legendary Unga Klara’s days as part of Stockholms Stadsteater, and at the same time a celebratory welcome to Unga Klara, the independent company. This is a Baby Drama for adults, written for five exceptional actors and featuring fragments of daily existence that fused together create a marvelous close contact.

BY Ann-Sofie Bárány
DIRECTED BY Suzanne Osten
SET AND COSTUMES Anna Heymowska
MUSIC Kalle Bäccman
SONG TEXTS Ann-Sofie Bárány
MASK AND PUPPETS My Walther
LIGHT DESIGN Lina Benneth
DANCE INSTRUCTION Matti Alenius
CHOREOGRAPHY Micaela von Gegerfelt, Rasmus Ölme
MAKE-UP Carina Saxenberg, Patricia Svajger
PERFORMERS Malin Cederbladh, Gustav Deinoff, Suzanne Gunnersen, Emelie Jonsson, Jan Modin

Ca. 2 hrs. 30 mins. including intermission
Premiered 2 April 2009 at Unga Klara
Authors rights: Ann-Sofie Bárány

FERDYDURKE – TURTEATERN

FOTO: JONAS JÖRNEBERG

Witold Gombrowicz is thirty years old when his old schoolmaster suddenly shows up to take him back to school. Now, when everyone sees him as a schoolboy, he can do no better than to behave as one. He is captured in a guise forced upon him by others, one that he cannot escape. This sets in motion a carousel of nightmares, beginning as a hallucination but gradually proving to be something more real than anything hitherto experienced. The production is based upon Gombrowicz’ first novel, Ferdydurke.

The jury’s motivation: The popularity of Polish writer Witold Gombrowicz ebbs and flows. Approximately every second decade a new generation discovers his anarchistic and somewhat ambiguous writings. But never before has he been interpreted in this fashion. Turteatern’s boundless staging of this language novel, Ferdydurke, in reality a work that defies dramatization, with hallucinatory scenes and queer-grotesque flights of fancy, sets every category of desire spinning faster then any attraction at any amusement park anywhere.

ADAPTED FOR THE STAGE BY Emma Broström
DIRECTED BY Erik Holmström
MUSIC AND SOUND DESIGN Stefan Johansson
SET AND LIGHT DESIGN Markus Granqvist
COSTUMES Siri Carlheim Gyllensköld
MAKE-UP Linda Sandberg
PERFORMERS Marie Ahl, Jesper Feldt, Stefan Johansson, Nils Poletti, Albin Werle, David Arnesen, Emil Malmsten

Ca. 2 hrs. 30 mins incuding intermission
Premiered 21 of February, 2009 at Turteatern in Kärrtorp
Authors agent: Teater & Musik, Cecilia Önfelt

KATITZI – FOLKTEATERN I GÖTEBORG
English subtitles on some of the performances

FOTO: PATRIK GUNNAR HELIN

When Katitzi was seven years old her father came and took her from the orphanage. Now she is nine and the other kids on the block call her a gypsy. They say that gypsies steal and lie and that they don’t act the way other people do. But Katitzi doesn’t steal or lie. And she doesn’t want to be the way other people are. She simply wants to be who she is.
Adapted from Katarina Taikon’s much-loved books that were based on her own experiences as a Romani living in Sweden.

The jury’s motivation: A musical and colourful production that isn’t afraid of pathos or sentiment; it is as timely as it is full of feeling. The material is adapted from Katarina Taikon’s autobiographical childhood tales, a story that carries the Romani experience but also has meaning in widening circles, particularly in the here and now. Cecilia Milocco’s Katitzi is luminous with energy, curiosity and integrity.

DRAMATIZATION Emma Broström
DIRECTED BY Lars-Eric Brossner
SET DESIGN Sören Brunes
COSTUMES Magdalena Nilsson
MAKE-UP Lars Carlsson
PERFORMERS Johan Friberg, Cecilia Milocco, Isabel Munshi, Shelby Niavarani, Ulla Svedin, Lars Väringer and Sara Wikström
Musicians: Jonathan Larsson, Niklas Román, Pedram Shahlai

A family production for ages 7 and up. Ca. 1 hr. 30 mins. including intermission. Premiered 27 November 2010 at Folkteatern I Göteborg.
Author’s agent: Colombine Teaterförlag

LAGARNA (The Rules) – TEATER GALEASEN

FOTO: CATO LEIN

The play Lagarna (The Rules) is a casebook in practical philosophy; is a human being the sum of her actions or of her intentions? We meet here three actors, 1, 2 and 3 who assert with emphasis that they are not Agamemnon, Clytaemestra or Iphigenia. All of our existential questions have a place within this tragic framework of mother, father, child-
3. I am not a victim.
1. I am not that mother who was incapable of protecting her child.
2. I am not a murderer.

The jury’s motivation: The celebrated playwright Christina Ouzounidis’ linguistic sport with the ancient personages of Agamemnon, Clytaemestra and Iphigenia transform into a modern tale of present day mendacity, helplessness and violence. Olof Hanson and his ensemble have employed theatrical intelligence and originality to create an entertaining, provocative and ground breaking production, who’s contact with the origins of theatre appear alive and unbroken.

BY Christina Ouzounidis
DIRECTED BY Olof Hanson
CASTING/ MANAGING DIRECTOR Sophia Artin
MUSIC Jens Ohlin
SET AND LIGHT DESIGN SUTODA
COSTUMES Jenny Linhart
MAKE-UP Frida Johansson
PERFORMERS Lina Englund, Sandra Huldt, Claes Ljungmark

Ca. 1 hr. 40 mins. without intermission
Premiered 4 October 2010 at Teater Galeasen
Author’s agent: Colombine Teaterförlag

INGVAR! EN MUSIKALISK MÖBELSAGA (Ingvar! A Musical Tale of Furniture) – MALMÖ STADSTEATER

FOTO: PETER WESTRUP

It’s the end of another catastrophic day on the stock market. Desparate brokers have lost fortunes; there own as well as others’. They grope for hope, anything that will help them stay afloat just one more day. They aspire to a better world and dream of escaping the predator, capitalism. And suddenly they remember – IKEA!

The jury’s motivation: This musical tale about Ingvar, the furniture king is a new kind of political cabaret, a cocktail of Swedish musical melancholy and a portrait of Ingvar Kamprad, here the product of evangelistic values and an ironclad work ethic. Ingvar comes across like a Messiah and every retail outlet a temple, making IKEA a modern religion. Playwright Klas Abrahamsson has written a saga for our times about the hero who gave the world a vision of the good home. The production is phenomenally well acted, a trimmed and effective machine churning out perfectly sung irony asking questions about business and ideology.

BY Erik Gedeon, Klas Abrahamsson
ORIGINAL TITLE Das Wunder von Schweden, eine musikalische Möbelsaga
COMPOSED AND DIRECTED BY Erik Gedeon
TEXT Klas Abrahamsson
SET DESIGN Ulrich Frommhold
COSTUMES Dagmar Fabisch
MAKE-UP Åsa Trulsson
LIGHT DESIGN Sven-Erik Andersson
PERFORMERS Daniel Adolfsson, Frida Bergh, Andreas Grötzinger, Mari Götesdotter, Sara Jefta, Katarina Lundgren-Hugg, Anders Ortman, Magnus Schmitz, Jan Vesala

Ca, 2 hrs. 10 mins. including intermission
Sweden premiere 25th September 2010 at Malmö Stadsteater
Author’s agents: Draken Teaterförlag, Colombine Teaterförlag

EN ÄR ILSKEN, EN ÄR RÄDD, EN GÖR ALLT FÖR ATT BLI SEDD (One is angry, One is scared, One would do anything to be seen) – RIKSTEATERN
English subtitles on some of the performances

FOTO: MARTIN SKOOG

En är ilsken, en är rädd, en gör allt för att bli sedd is a play for children about hope and overcoming fear, about playing and daring. We meet Liten (Little one) who would rather fight bad guys than help with the laundry. Större (Bigger) wants to help mom but doesn’t find it easy when Liten is playing war in the laundry basket. Then something strange happens. The pile of laundry starts to shift and something crawls out. It’s The Survivor who has taken refuge in the laundry room. Suddenly everything is changed and what was impossible is now within reach.
The jury’s motivation: A multi-layered drama for children that takes on loss and strategies for survival. A generous production with lots of room for laughter, tears, despair, imagination, seriousness and explosions of giggling, songs and tightrope walking. Excellent portrayals of children crafted with solidarity and a rainbow of nuances.

BY Emma Broström
DIRECTION AND CHOREOGRAPHY Kajsa Isakson
SET AND COSTUMES Fridjon Rafnsson
COMPOSER Kalle Bäccman
LIGHT DESIGN Fridjon Rafnsson
SOUND DESIGN Henrik Ekberg, Hadrian Prett
MAKE-UP Eva Rizell
CHARLESTON CHOREOGRAPHY Rikard Ekstrand
TIGHTROPE TEACHERS Batsugar Tsendjaev, Siri Hamari
PERFORMERS Siri Hamari, Mårten Andersson, Peter Perski

PUBLIKEN (The Audience) – GÖTEBORGS STADSTEATER

FOTO: OLA KJELBYE

Lets push this to the limit. How much truth can the people of Göteborg take? A director creates poetic theatre without a safety net. The audience revolts. The ensemble fights and makes love. The heterosexual norm has the shakes. Death to the theatre! Long live the theatre! Forget realism! Forget reason! We offer you poetry and emotion where your interpretation is always right! When Federico Garcia Lorca read the play for his friends in Granada, Spain in the early thirties, they warned him against staging it. The work was too dangerous and the time wasn’t ripe. Later, Lorca was brutally murdered, but his play was found… Now it is up to you to decide if the time is ripe!

The jury’s motivation: With Lorca’s The Audience, Suzanne Osten throws down a challenge to one and all, the audience, the theatre and to life itself. The wholly physical performance style is a firework display where love and the theatre – and the charge that accumulates where they meet – becomes the explosive force. This production juggles symbols and conventions, thinks queer and makes everything it touches playable. The result is a triumph for the art of the actor and raises the temperature of Swedish theatre.

BY Federica Garcia Lorca
TRANSLATION Lars Bjurman
DIRECTED BY Suzanne Osten
DRAMATURGE Åsa Lindholm, Ann-Sofie Bárány, Malin Axelsson, Jonathan Lehtonen
CHOREOGRAPHY Fredrika Byman-Moberg, Soledad Howe, Minna Kiper
SET AND COSTUMES Rikke Juellund
MUSIC Malin Dahlström, Kalle Bäccman
LIGHT DESIGN Torkel Blomqvist
SOUND DESIGN Jesper Lindell
MAKE-UP Ingela Collin, Elisabeth Wigander
PERFORMERS Elvin Dahlgren, Malin Dahlström, Marie Delleskog, Johan Gry, Åsa-Lena Hjelm, Lisa Lindgren, Mattias Nordkvist, Simon Norrthon, Ann Petrén, David Rangborg, Anna Takanen, Eli Ingvarsson, Amelie Thorén

Ca. 3 hrs. including intermission
Premiered 23 October 2009 at Göteborgs Stadsteater

UR ETT ÖVERGIVET ARBETE (From an abandoned work) – HELSINGBORGS STADSTEATER / DRAMATEN

FOTO: SÖREN VILKS

In From an Abandoned Work an old man remembers a leave taking that decided the direction of his life. In the production, his present time farewell dissolves in events and epochs in the man’s life. The story describes fragments of his growing-up years, a young man’s anger and his refusal to step in line.
Beckett’s From an Abandoned Work was written as a prose text in the 1950’s and, with special permission from the estate of Samuel Beckett, is performed here for the first time on stage.

The jury’s motivation: A crotchety Ingvar Kjellson in a gray cardigan with a long career on the stage, proves exactly how little one needs to do, to capture the great, white non-being of Samuel Beckett’s world. Karl Dunér has mounted a big little production, which, while offering almost nothing in the way of comfort, strangely allows one to leave the theatre happy.

BY Samuel Beckett
DIRECTIONS AND IMAGES BY Karl Dunér
LIGHT DESIGN SUTODA
TRANSLATION Magnus Hedlund
SPECIAL THANKS TO Edward Beckett and Peder Freiij
PERFORMER Ingvar Kjellson

A collaboration between Helsingborgs Stadsteater and The Royal Dramatic Theatre
Ca. 1 hr. – no intermission
Premiered 7 December 2009 at Helsingborgs Stadsteater. Played 2010 at The Royal Dramatic Theatre and Göteborgs Stadsteater
Author’s agent: Curtis Brown Group

NÄR BLIR DET SNART? (How soon is soon?) – MITTIPRICKTEATERN

FOTO: MARTIN SKOOG

Waiting, how it can feel and what you can do. Boring when you’re just waiting for mom or dad to pick you up from day care or when you’re waiting for summer to come. Exciting when you are waiting to be discovered in a game of hide and seek. Scary if you’re waiting to see the doctor. And when is SOON, really? They always say “We’ll be there soon”, when we’re riding somewhere in the car, or soon it will be Christmas, or its time for bed soon. Can soon be as long or as short as you want?

The jury’s motivation: Waiting is something that even the smallest child has experience of. How soon is soon? That is the question in this clever and entertaining variation on Beckett’s Waiting for Godot made for children. Philosophical questions concerning time, waiting and longing are discussed using song, dance, theatre, sketches and games in this irresistible and existential production.

BY The ensemble
DIRECTED BY Josefin Lennström
SET AND COSTUMES Anna Sigurdsdotter
PERFORMERS Henrik Gustafsson, Magnus Munkesjö

For children from 3-6 years old
30 mins., no intermission
Premiered 13 February, 2010 in the Crypt, Kista Church
Author’s agent: Colombine Teaterförlag

NO TEARS FOR QUEERS – REGIONTEATER VÄST / RIKSTEATERN
English subtitles on some of the performances

FOTO: OLA KJELBYE

Three young homosexual men are brutally murdered, one each in Katrineholm, Göteborg in Sweden and one in Laramie, Wyoming, USA. The three cases have striking similarities. The perpetrators in each case were young and the murders were marked by extreme physical violence and a frightening brutality. In a story woven by four narrators the murderers, the justice system, friends and families are given voice.

The jury’s motivation: The stage adaptation of Johan Hilton’s book, No Tears for Queers documents the brutal murder of three homosexual men. Understated and with neutral voices and body postures the actors shift masterfully between media reporters and actual witness accounts of the actions described. The ensemble exposes the violence that lies latent under the street jargon easily recognizable in our own lives. Mattias Brunn’s dramatization and Nina Wester’s direction find the necessary balance between distance and emotional strength. The staging makes use of contrasts and builds eloquent transitions between episodes. As horrible and unpleasant as it is understated, the play exemplifies the power in documentary theatre and reality.

DRAMATIZATION Mattias Brunn
ADAPTED AND DIRECTED BY Nina Wester
SET AND COSTUMES Daniel Åkerström-Steen
PERFORMERS Mårten Andersson, Mattias Brunn, Peter Lorentzon, Helena Sandström

The play is based on Johan Hilton’s book, No Tears for Queers and addresses primarily young audiences.
1 hr. and 20 mins. No intermission
A 30 minute discussion with the youth chapter of RFSL will take place directly following the performance.
Premiered 16th of Sepember 2009 at Pustervik Theatre, Göteborg.
Author’s rights: Matias Brunn and Johan Hilton
Hilton’s book is published by Atlas Förlag

INTERNATIONAL GUEST PERFORMANCES

JUHA / A Dance Performance – from Finland
The performance is played in Finnish and will be subtitled in English

FOTO: PETRA TIIHONEN, STUDIO ALIAS

Juha is a ballad of love without a homeland, a warm and passionate Cossack dance about the need to please. Mikko Roiha allows dance to meet theatre in this new interpretation of Juha, based on a novel written by one of Finland’s most celebrated modern authors, Juhani Aho. Juha is the second part of a trilogy that deals with Finland’s border to the east.
Mikko Roiha, born 1971 in Finland, is a director and an actor. He was awarded in 2008 the prize for theatre from The National Performing Arts Commission in Finland.

The dance theatre group MINIMI celebrates twenty years as an established professional company. The group is based in Kuoipio but was started in Helsinki by choreographer Tommi Huovinen. MINIMI’s productions conduct a dialogue between dance and drama and are all infused with humanism, humor and adhesion to that which is Finnish. MINIMI in 2007 was honored as Theatre of the Year by the performing arts employers organization Finland’s Theatres RF.

TEXT Mikko Roiha, based on his interpretation of the novel Juha by Juhani Aho
DIRECTED BY Mikko Roiha
CHOREGORAPHY Mikko Roiha and ensemble
SOUND DESIGN Sami Silén
LIGHT DESIGN Mikko Roiha, Sam Siltavuori
VIDEO DESIGN Jukka Horsmanheimo
SET DESIGN Mikko Roiha, Jukka Horsmanheimo
COSTUME DESIGN Jaana Kurttil
PERFORMERS Antti Lahti, Sampo Kerola, Riikka Puumalainen, Sari Jokelin/Riitta Selin
PRODUKTION Dansteater MINIMI, Korjaamo Teater, Seinãjoki Stadsteater, Åbo Stadsteater

Ca. 90 mins. without intermission
Premiered 13th of January 2010 at Korjaamo Teatteri, Helsinki
Copyright: Nordic Drama Corner

JE DANSE ET JE VOUS EN DONNE À BOUFFER A culinary dance performance from France / Tunisia

FOTO: ANTOINE TEMPE

Radhouane El Meddeb celebrates his national dish, couscous, and all the love that goes into its preparation and cooking. The fresh ingredients are chopped and sliced as Radhouane freely moves to every task. In front of his cooking pots with skill, generosity and poetry, the couscous is prepared. Between the tomato paste, the zucchinis, the carrots and the cinnamon: a jump, a turn, a glance, a break…the smells, the songs, the movement…the taste!

Radhouane El Meddeb is Tunisian born and studied at The Institute of Higher Learning in the Dramatic Arts in Tunis. He has worked with all the leading artists in the Tunisian and Arabic theatre world and worked collaboratively with a number of contemporary directors and choreographers. In 1996 he was honored as “the young hope of the Tunisian theatre”. Radhouane is today primarily based in France and in 2010 created his first work for his own ensemble at Centre National de la Danse i Pantin. His company, La compagnie de SOI is now occupies most of his efforts.

CONCEIVED AND PERFORMED BY Radhouane El Meddeb & La compagnie de SOI
ON STAGE Radhouane El Meddeb

Premiere: Centre National de la Danse i Pantin, France 2008. The performance has since toured in France and England

Between 1 hr. 30 minutes and 2 hrs. 15 mins.