"La Strada" 2007
In its 10 years Graz has been able to see for itself that the impossible can be done. That circus can have depth, that mask theatre can have an astonishingly intoxicating appeal and that the street is a great place for encounters.
(Comments © by "LaStrada, Graz")
"démodés"
companyia la tal - (es)
Life is a dog. These days it is not only unloved animals but also discarded jokers who are abandoned at the side of the road. This is at all events the experimental assumption of Leandre who delicately massaged the heart and the laughter muscles with his melancholy jocularity. The discarded clowns, still in costume but without the circus ring. So what was so funny about this? Well, just about everything as Leandre and his old fashioned troop showed that jokers are a lot more fun in private life than they ever are on stage - and that comedy keeps the upper hand even when times get tough. A wonderful old fashioned clown theatre for the street, a rare and delightful pleasure.
"infinita"
familie flöz - (de)
The final conflict between life and death begins with birth and the favourite in this fight has never permitted victory to be snatched from its hands. Or is that really the case? Four old men spend their declining days in day-dreaming and unravelling memories of what once was. That which is to come is not really so very attractive. The perfectly choreographed whirlwind of events is the trademark of the Flöz family. Four dumb masked players shine brilliantly - supported by sophisticated shadow play and indeterminate music - in this comedy of errors in which life itself plays the main role. A performance full of sparkling wit, gentle poetry, delicate melancholy and despite everything given a really nice candied coating. If nothing else it is a wonderful example of the vitality of the contemporary theatre of masks in Europe.
"instrument monument"
décor sonore - (fr)
There was music tucked away in the opera. But not the way you thought. This time the building was not hallowed ground for an encounter with the classic achievements of scenic music - but the Opera House building itself had become an instrument, the sounding body of a project that finds music where one never really expects or listens for it. Here every material, every object had its own sound. Décor Sonore mastermind Michel Risse hunted down these sounds - sometimes using a stethoscope. "Working in context" is how Risse describes this access, a journey of discovery full of surprises in the colourful kingdom of sound. For the audience this was a charmingly exotic play of sound and space - not only in the Opera, but also all around the light-sabre sculpture in front of the building.
"dans"
adrian schvarzstein & irma borges - (es)
This was a happy re-union indeed with the declared La Strada favourite: His clown solos are sheer genius - as a little green man, then as a traveller on a mobile heavenly bed - and Adrian Schvarzstein completed them this time with the addition of a part as a devoted torero, with a feel in his blood for dance moving into a scene where hitched in a bond for life a majestic skating duo glides across the floor. You simply can´t describe what, only Adrian Schvarzstein (and really and truly only he) can do this to perfection.
"cargo"
théâtre du centaure - (fr)
The Centaur of Greek mythology, half horse and half man is symbolic of the fusion of nature and civilisation, animal strength with the addition of human intellect. The French Théâtre du Centaure took up this magical link to perfection in a performance that puts in focus a longing for the mythical. In a manner far from all horse show aesthetics and smaltzy dressurage "Cargo" tells the story of Helene who dreams of leaving everything behind her and of her brother Yvan, who draws his strength from the here and now and of Daoud, the immigrant, who provides a further spur to Helen´s itchy feet and her desire for encounters with the unknown.
"the brave little tailor"
theater auf der zitadelle - (de)
Courage is a great thing once you have survived the adventures. The brave little tailor sits on the throne and allows his legs to dangle as he recounts his adventures with giants, a unicorn and wild boars. Tells of his "seven at a single blow" to the sceptical king and is a little excited when he recalls the coming wedding with the princess: in fact, it is going to be held right now! Spirited, amusing and very musical is how this fable unfolds of the brave little tailor and his path to the throne - we also learned how to be a good king along the way. Something truly lively from the Brothers Grimm.
"i"
baro d´evel - (fr)
What "I" describes entirely in terms of cirque nouveau is the course of a wanderer between the present and the past; a clown who hopes to encounter his history, his language and possibly his identity somewhere between Spain, Catalonia and France. Can an acrobat take up and comment on political events? Baro d´Evel did indeed achieve this incredible balancing act by showing us a person who must constantly re-invent himself in order to survive, on whose body insecurity, the blows of fate, exile, snow, wind, cold are clearly written. Where are those limits that are to be broken through; are they encountered on the path taken or are they really found within the person? "I" found amazing, magical, inimitable images throwing light on this question.
"iliad"
asterions hus - (dk)
Achilles is in an ugly mood because Paris has carried off Helen. You didn´t need to know anymore to follow this fast-paced version of the Iliad. Three actors, who jump around effortlessly in and out of 36 (!) different roles, and one big box: That is all that is needed to tell one of the greatest stories in human history, extremely condensed, grotesque, tragic, in a very bodily fashion - and suddenly breaking into the hyper-real realm when a couple of sport reporters provide a running commentary on one of the most famous big fight duels in western literature. Theatre through and through, scintillating spark-spray of humour and guaranteed free of knick-knacks.
"la serre"
jean paul lefeuvre & didier andré - (fr)
The most wonderful folly imaginable blooms in this glasshouse: Two gardeners among the sunflowers and the daisies, showed how to pep up a circus ring to perfection but using plants instead of animals. Anyone who had always wanted to know how to dance with a wheelbarrow or to juggle with cobble stones had come to the right place and so too had all lovers of truly polished slapstick.
"steel band déambulatoire"
acousteel gang - (fr)
When Graz suddenly became the centre of the Caribbean, then the credit can be taken by the steel band whose blissful thrumming lied over the city like a breeze from Trinidad. Led by a little man with a big megaphone, the virtuoso Gang stretches an irresistible tracework of rhythm through the alleys and the squares finally ending at disco and ska standards with the aid of drumsticks and harmony singing and astonishingly light-footed dance numbers dusted off and set going with a new breath of life.
"brut de décharge"
les pietons - (fr)
How fine that the abundance of consumer society ensures that it is not only we who can live magnificently. Five rats feel so wonderfully at home in the rubbish that their artistic instincts come alive: and the march "music from the garbage" strikes up on instruments hand-picked by Jean-Marie Maddedu, a by no means unknown personality for La Strada fans. The music poured out of old lamps, television sets, laundry baskets, traffic signs and even from a festival flag telling a tale of how too much is always too little and how we often err in our judgement of what is ugly and what beautiful. We also explored how sound can be used for the easy conquest of a city.
"o ninho"
fiar - (pt)
The traditional songs from Alentejo and acrobatic tightrope walking have got nothing whatsoever in common. That is a notion only the hopelessly prosaic could have believed when they saw these serious elderly men in their broad-brimmed hats and their soft voices at the feet of a girl who dances in the air apparently in total defiance of gravity. The men sang of their tears and the song melted into the movements of the acrobat above their heads in a perfect image of beauty and melancholy.
"the butterfly workshop"
theater asou - (at)
This story is set at the beginning of the world when animals and plants were first created. No one wanted to work in the insect workshop, however, and it is left to Rodolfa - the only one who is not bothered by all the creepy crawlies. Her dream is of an entirely new kind of being, delicate and colourful as a flower and light as a bird. All the experiences derived from this idea are related by the Theater Asou to the terms of a story by Gioconda Belli - narrated with sensitivity and driven by the belief that the "world was created from poetry".
"the lazy kings"
transe express - (fr)
The intoxicating, magnificently colourful usuriousness of the imagination characterises the incomparably quirky parades and performances of Trance Express. The mourning procession ended in a journey to heaven: The heavenly machine had three wings with a span of 30 metres and it flied the king 20 metres above the earth to his dreams and his gods. No less than four full stage ensembles were presented in this gigantic assemblage of acrobats and strange creatures to captivate the audience with their performing and their music. The sheer abundance of all this was not why audience jaws drop in astonishment: These legendary audience favourites are consummate masters in the narration of tales presented in associative sequences of images, sounds and movements. Sweeping visual theatre that storms heaven not merely in the literal sense.
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