Sunday 13 August 2017

Deflowering Dramaturgy: BAK @ Edfringe 2017

Alice: Underground Lives My Buried Mind (Deflowering the Lewis Carroll's Script)
Synopsis: In a large and sophisticated house lives Alice and her family. Bright and airy rooms; except the one where at night rests the child whose body is in transition between the naive girl and the impetuous woman. She confronts herself with her own ghosts, coming to question if this world is really the Wonderland. Alice is us. Naked before the world, thrown into it to face it.

Dates: Aug 04th to 20th, 16:55h
Zoo Venues - Sanctuary (venue 124)

Torn apart  - By Romeo and Juliet

Synopsis: Memories are reborn, they are created, they make up the narrative of young people who bring to the scene various perspectives on childhood, pain, homesickness, loss, affective relations and extreme passions now idealised, now lived by them or by their parents – themes that revolve around and cross the central theme of the show: love. These stories intersect with the classic Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, presenting a contemporary look from this lyric tragedy that goes through the centuries.

Dates: 21th to 26th
17:15h
Greenside  - Royal Terrace – Jade Studio (venue 231)


Company Website: bakperformingarts.com

What was the inspiration for this performance?

The idea of choosing a classic is always something that carries the idea of themes that cross time. Being a research Company that works using a contemporary language, we believe that the classic contains conflicts and questions that we can discuss in our time.
A classic always contains an universal idea. What can we get out of this? The Alice’s choice is “What is Wonderland?” Is there any Wonderland? Is there any idea of happiness ? We live in a violent world. Looking through the Lewis Carroll’s work we see the girl living unimaginable conflicts for a child. From then on, what would an Alice look like today, going through a world we believe is unimaginable for a girl to cross?
In our Alice, a young girl crosses an ordinary day among conflicts of her own mind in an unusual and violent world.

2) Is performance still a good space for the public discussion of ideas?

Perhaps today is the space most neediest. The idea of being present is no fundamental anymore in our common lives, and it’s because of the technology advance, succession of images and information speed. Being seated for an hour watching another person talk may be a revolution.

3) How did you become interested in making performances?

In Brazil, the audience often expects a daily language, closer to the soath-operas than to the theatre itself.
Over time I realized that the stage should be a zone of turbulence, where naturalism is often not welcome. I believe the audience goes to the theatre to get energized.
I started to get interested in putting on shows that could create questions for the audience. I thought that many things I attended were easy.
My restlessness was how to create a tension between audience and who was on stage, but I always thought about the idea of electricity and take the public out of comfort’s zone. The audience is not just a brain, it's a body. I still believe that through the visual arts, dance, sound art and text/poetry we can provoke the person who remains seated in a chair receiving information per an hour. I thought I should create works where the audience could work together, as if the show just ended if the person, during that hour work physically and emotionally with the artists till the last second of the scene.


4) Is there any particular approach to the making of the show?

The show contains original sung songs and also original soundtrack. A sound artist and composer makes the sound of the show creating live sensations, as if each day was different of the other days.

5) Does the show fit with your usual productions?
Yes. I believe in the artists who create their works, a sequence is a sophistication and an evolution of their own works. It is as if everything is a continuity, part of a process, a present still necessary for that show/work.

6) What do you hope that the audience will experience?

I think that the audience should come into conflict with their own sensations and emotions as if the images and texts they perceive were somehow part of their most hidden memory. Maybe at home or the next day the person can understand something that has touched him/her.

7) What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?

I work from the sound and lighting. Light is space. Sound is time. Through a minimalist scenario I impose on the body of the actors a game of images and drawings. Actor/Actress, light and sound create the necessary metaphors for the work I do.


Por:
João Marcelo Pallottino

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