EYE Film Institute Netherlands

L.A. Dance Project
Benjamin Millepied, artistic director

Winterbranch (1964)
Choreography: Merce Cunningham
Music: La Monte Young (2 Sounds - (April 1960))
Concept, Costumes, lighting: Robert Rauschenberg

Moving Parts  (2012)
Choreography: Benjamin Millepied
Music: Nico Muhly
Visual concept: Christopher Wool
Costumes: RODARTE

Quintett (1993)
Choreography: William Forsythe
Music: Gavin Bryers

Reflections (world premiere)
Choreography: Benjamin Millepied
Music: David Lang
Visual concept: Barbara Kruger

Richard Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
Libretto: Richard Wagner
Sung in German

Marc Albrecht, conductor
David Alden, stage director
Sets: Gideo Davey
Costumes: Jon Morrell
Choreography: Jonathan Lunn
Lighting: Adam Silverman

Nederlands Philharmonisch Orkest
chorus of De Nederlandse Opera
directed by Thomas Eitler
De Nederlandse Opera production

Cast:

James Johnson
Alastair Miles
Pascal Pittie
Mattijs van de Woerd
Adrian Eröd
Thomas Oliemans
Marcel Beekman
Reinhard Alessandri
Frans Fiselier
Tom Haenen
Tijl Faveyt
Roberto Sacca
Thomas Blondelle

Tratando de hacer una obra que cambie el mundo (An attempt to stage a play that will change the world)

Directed by Marco Layera Navarro
Dramaturgy: La Re-sentida
Scenography: Pablo de la Fuente
Costumes Carolina Sandoval

At the Frascati theatre director Marco Layera Navarro (1977) and his Chilean theatre company La Re-sentida present their dark comedy Tratando de hacer una obra que cambie el mundo... el delirio final de los últimos románticos – which in English means An attempt to stage a play that will change the world – the ultimate delirium of the last romantics. It's an absurdist play about the role of art in modern society and a weird and wonderful reflection on the desire for utopia, revolution and the scope for cultural and political change – and full of self-ridicule.

Disappointed by the desperate political situation in their country, a group of five actors sharing radical political views decide to go underground and hide in a bunker crammed to the hilt with thousands of documents and scientific research papers. Cut off from the outside world, they aim to write the ultimate play which will really, fundamentally change the world for the better for ever. After four years discussing what type of theatre they should be making, word reaches them that a new government has come to power, which has succeeded in banning all poverty and social injustice. This new political model is now being introduced world-wide, even in the poorest and most corrupt of African nations. So, has their self-imposed exile been in vain? Why would they still make theatre?

Performed by:

Carolina Palacios
Benjamín Westfall
Nicolás Herrera
Pedro Muñoz
Guilherme Sepúlveda

Dieudonné Niangouna: Shéda
Dieudonné Niangouna, director
Sets: Patrick Janvier
Lighting: Xavier Lazarini
Sound: Christina Clar
Costumes: Vélica Panduru
Choreography, preparation of the fights: DeLaVallet Bidiefono

There are three recurring themes in the work of the Congolese actor, writer, theatre maker and director Dieudonné Niangouna (Brazzaville 1976). They are fear, loneliness and the need for change – themes which were also very much present in his previous two productions, the raw and physical monologues Attitude Clando (2007) and Les Inepties volantes (2009). Both these plays were a cry for him to keep on living despite the infinitely deep wounds the war has caused him. Ninagouna maintains that our societies are constantly driven by these three principles, a trilogy of themes which has been present in his work for years, gradually becoming more prominent and now, after 12 years, having come to full fruition in his latest production Shéda.

Shéda is a ‘choral odyssey’ with twelve African and European actors, including Niangouna himself, and two musicians. Part theatre, part music, it’s an orchestrated stream of words, thoughts and images which are fused harmoniously in a layered theatrical fresco. It’s about life and death, violence and love, wisdom and madness, hope and despair. 

The characters embody fallen gods from time immemorial who after an apocalyptic event have returned as ghosts or in dreamlike apparitions to this dried-up world of today.

Dieudonné Niangouna (Brazzaville, 1976) is a Congolese actor, writer and director. He used to situate his work on the streets of Brazzaville, outside the war wrecked theatres, where he developed a new dramatic language. Now he is one of the most prominent innovators of African theatre. In 1997 with his brother Criss he formed the theatre group Les Bruits de la Rue, in order to reflect the violence and the anger on the streets of the Republic of Congo. His work is centred on a sense of urgency, inspired by the bloody civil war in his country and the history of French colonialism. In Congolese society it’s difficult to survive as a writer or an actor, so resistance is key. Aware that the language of drama is intended to be written, expressed and heard, Niangouna combines classical French, the popular and poetic language of the great Congolese writer Sony Labou Tansi and the language and oral tradition of the Lari people.

Cast

Laetitia Ajanohun
Marie-Charlotte Biais
Madalina Constantin
Pierre-Jean Etienne
Frédéric Fisbach
Wakeu Fogaing
Diariétou Keïta
Abdon Fortuné Koumbha
Harvey Massamba
Mathieu Montanier
Criss Niangouna

Production: Festival d’Avignon