"La Strada" 2015

"cuisine & confessions"
 

the 7 fingers (ca)

  The smell of home-made biscuits. The taste of fresh basil. The aroma of steaming coffee. In 7 Fingers´ big communal kitchen there´s also room for stories about love, childhood, loss and mishaps. As with every good dish, this cirque nouveau production also needs a lot of ingredients: the artistes, actors and performers tell their life stories, of their dreams, experiences and roots through spectacular acrobatics, with music of their own composition and in quiet moments too. Can you still recall? How it feels when, as a little girl, you lick the cake mixture off your fingers? What if the father of the family is arrested at dinner during the time of military dictatorship? And just how does the best omelette in the world smell? Night-time discussions in the kitchen about the things that really make the world go round - these exceptional Canadian artistes, who belong among the most inventive circus troupes in the world today, share with their audience in Graz their stories, memories and perhaps something more...

"su-seso taladro"
 

murmuyo (chi)

  Public order in the city is about to experience hard times: Murmuyo and Metrayeta are known for fearlessly conquering the streets and provocatively putting the rules out of action.
  Inimitable, funny and sometimes quite audacious too, these Chilean street performers confront the audience with a satirical mirror on human weaknesses. They take the city, with all its urban catastrophes and calamitous hurdles and, in their particular style, examine it under a magnifying glass. All with a little wink and a jig, playfully and certainly with a mission and a vision.

"becoming peter pan - an epilogue to michael jackson"

nikolaus habjan & schubert theater wien (at)

  Michael Jackson at the height of his fame never interested him because, for young Austrian puppeteer Nikolaus Habjan, the controversial star only became an exciting figure after his death. Using a puppet representing the aging King of Pop, Habjan brings the brilliant musician back to life once more. "Becoming Peter Pan - an epilogue to Michael Jackson" deals with a man who cannot leave his childhood behind and can´t decide whether he´s Peter Pan or the King of Pop. He lives in an asylum and sees images from the past of both of them flitting by, whilst his alter ego tries to convince him to reel in old successes and start from the very beginning once more in Neverland. A fascinating play on curiosity by Schubert Theater Wien, which shows the man behind the persona.

"visions of life"

samson ogiamien & theatre fragile (at/de/fr)

  Sculpture, mask theatre and young people from various different cultures encounter one another: "Visions of Life" is a concept by Samson Ogiamien, through which the Nigerian-Styrian artist wants to give young people the chance to express their visions and plans by means of art. Together in several workshops they will produce masks, which the youngsters will then bring to life with the help of Stefanie Oettl and director-duo Marianne Corniel and Luzid Ackers of "Theatre Fragile". Then public space will be the stage for sometimes subtle and sometimes speedy encounters, roots will be understood and visions developed - once rigid masks come to life.

"ccc - closed circuit circus"

zweintopf (at)

  "For your security, this area is under video surveillance." Whilst, in former times, physical walls excluded unwelcome visitors and restrained them from hanging around in particular places, today other access restrictions are being brought to bear - imposed over people´s heads by the cameras possessing a power, range and field of view that most people are unable to comprehend. With a fine touch and precision, Zweintopf explore the rapidly increasing monitoring of urban public space by invisible eyes in the form of cameras. Their installation renders boundaries and lines visible once more, actively includes the audience in the otherwise invisible communication and invites the question, who is actually working behind the scenes here, who is observing, comparing, evaluating? And above all, to what end?

"fanfare circa tsuica"

cheptel aleïkoum (fr)

  That carefully ordered arrangement of classic brass bands, with its straight lines and perfect formations - you can forget that, once Cheptel Aleïkoum conquers the city. The most important principal of order applies both to the musicians and the audience: "Don´t take yourself so seriously!" The "acrobatic and dangerous brass band" inspires audiences to clap, dance, laugh and sing. But that´s not all - they also expressly encourage people to kiss anyone they want to, there and then. The musical accompaniment for happy hearts is a mixture of Balkan sounds and American jazz, round which the musicians´ instruments and bodies dance, bringing incredible energy to the streets.

"boots and roots"

les clandestines (fr)

"hello and goodbye"

kunstlabor von unit (at)

  People come, people go and, behind every change of location, there are stories. No different in Liebenau from anywhere else in the world. Those who head off encounter decision points: from Thailand to Slovakia, from Marrakech to Marseille, from Trofaiach to Liebenau - afterwards, many things are no longer the way they were before. Kunstlabor Graz put questions to people all over Europe, who had moved, emigrated or immigrated or were still on the way. Their experiences, reasons to move and stories are available for a reality-check. During a tour through the district, visitors ask themselves precisely those questions that once confronted the protagonists; their decisions influence the subsequent sequence of events. A journey that allows others´ vital questions to become relevant for their own path and begs the question, what would their decisions have been?

"der räuber hotzenplotz"

handmaids berlin (de)

  Grandma is far from pleased: that robber Hotzenplotz has nabbed her coffee grinder - but not with her! Together with Kasperl and Seppl, this determined old lady heads off to hunt down the thief. On the way she has all kinds of adventures, like Petrosilius Zwackelmann the evil wizard, a an enchanted frog fairy and an invisiblility herb. As to whether grandma ultimately gets the better of the wicked robber, gets to drink her beloved cold coffee again and indeed how the coffee grinder feels about this entire drama; all will be revealed at the very end by these artistes from Berlin to their audience aged four and over. To their parents too, of course.

"wetta"

anna schrefl (at)

  A choreography for moved and moving moments, for co-dancers as well as for silent observers. In her work, Anna Schrefl combines the capacities and forms of expression of all protagonists with the utmost sensitivity. In this performance about the massive phenomenon of "weather" she unites dance, text and music. Dancers and dance-loving seniors, mezzo soprano Anoki von Arx as well as a choir with students from the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz, under the direction of Franz Jochum, provide for joint examination of a topic that touches us deeply and which, at the same time, is beyond our control.

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orchestre international du vetex (be)

  They move rumbustiously through the city streets: Orchestre International du Vetex mixes the spirit of the Balkans with the colours of Latin America, gives the whole thing an African touch and a little Mediterranean inspiration. On its eleventh birthday, this ensemble from France and Belgium has lost nothing of its wonderful craziness. These virtuoso musicians conquer the streets with their own compositions and spontaneous solos, relishing playing both with and against one another. It´s a mixture that rouses people to dance, laugh and sing.

"mathilde"

neville tranter (nl)

  Neville Tranter and his life-size puppets have been on stage in European festivals for more than 30 years and he dedicates all his works to the central question: "How can we survive and at what price?" "Mathilde" tells the story of a 102-year-old lady who has a lively recollection of what happened 60 years ago, but keeps forgetting where she just placed her things; whilst the management of her old people´s home dedicate themselves to the question of how to optimise their profits.
  This year in Graz he will show his new production "The King, Downfall of a Superstar". In both pieces, the Dutch grandmaster of puppet theatre tells the story of his tragical-comical figures in his subtle and humorous style, taking the audience along to new worlds.

"quand quelqu´un bouge"

le collectif de la bascule (fr)

  "If someone moves, the world turns faster, movements become more intense and those who stand still, say that he or she is running away." For Collectif de la Bascule, the words of Jacques Brels represent their vision of contemporary circus. New worlds are created, describing flashy stages, other lives, being in movement and keeping balance. In order to bring their visions to life, the French collective brings along a Gibson from Nashville, Moroccan circus stories and a Russian hypnotist. Also there: carpets from their numerous travels and the knowledge that only through these odysseys is the path created.

"échappées belles, issue de secours"

compagnie adhok (fr)

  The emergency exit at the old people´s home is open and the seven senior residents seize the unexpected opportunity.
  In this fun-packed and poetic play, the échappées belles (Great Escapes) set off to dive once more into that vibrant life outside and feel alive, albeit finding the movements trickier, their memories patchier and themselves that bit more frail now. These artists of the French Compagnie Adhok address the questions, experiences, memories, wishes and hopes surrounding growing older in a world that celebrates youth. And they let the revolution begin anew.

"zwischen den tassen"

eléctrico 28 (at)

  At the border between fiction and reality, past and present as well as actors and the audience, our perception of the beautiful theatrics of everyday life is honed. Graz artist Alina Stockinger and her team takes the audience along on a discovery of the city, in which not only the actors participate in the recapture of public space. Quite soon you will be asking yourself: who the are the passers-by and who are the protagonists here? And what is actually part of the performance?

"the king"

stuffed puppet theatre (nl)

  Neville Tranter and his life-size puppets have been on stage in European festivals for more than 30 years and he dedicates all his works to the central question: "How can we survive and at what price?" In "The King" Tranter follows an ageing pop star, whose best times are already over and who now has to tackle the question of whether a former super star can become a normal person again.
  This year in Graz he will show his new production "Mathilde". In both pieces, the Dutch grandmaster of puppet theatre tells the story of his tragical-comical figures in his subtle and humorous style, taking the audience along to new worlds.

"birdwatching 4x4"

benjamin vandewalle (be)

  Staging or everyday life? Performer or audience? Birdwatching 4x4 is blurring the boundaries with its poetic approach of the city. Take a seat in Benjamin Vandewalle´s mobile observation box and see the city as an experimental space, filled with new perspectives. In a game of concealing and revealing, the performance puts the audience, performers and the people of Graz to the test, giving way to a new experience of town.

"open dance"

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  La Strada invites everyone to dance, excludes traffic and changes the city´s rhythm completely for three days. Graz people can expect moving nights at the "Open Dance", starting on the first evening when the Serbian Quinteto Beltango waft traditional and contemporary Tango sounds into the summer breeze. On the second night, the Ensemble Mas´ta will join Irina Karamarkovic and Daniel Doujenis on an artistic journey through time to Greece at the beginning of the 20th century, to bring the music of Rebétiko or "Greek blues" to Graz. And on the third evening, the wonderfully crazy Orchestre International du Vetex conquers Kaiserfeldgasse.