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Newsletter June 2014

Dear friends of the Zürcher Theater Spektakel

we are delighted to introduce you to some of the exciting highlights of this year’s programme. Once again the Zürcher Theater Spektakel offers a platform to artists from over twenty nations across the world Once again the Zürcher Theater Spektakel offers a platform to artists from over twenty nations across the world. With three productions from Iran and one from Iraq, the Middle East represents a geographical focal point.
For a detailed programme preview click here.


Theatre from the Middle East

Amir Reza Koohestani, considered Iran's most important representative of straight theatre, presents his latest superb ensemble work «Ivanov» (picture above). He transforms Chekhov’s social study into a gloomy allegory of his home country stripped of all illusions. Hamid Pourazari, another pivotal figure of the Iranian theatre scene, premières «Sal Saniye» (Seconds Like Years), a work recently elaborated in Teheran with a team of ten energetic young performers. The young Iranian author and performer Azade Shahmiri explores «Damascus» in a lecture-performance as part of the Short Pieces. Iraqi director and choreographer Anas Abdul Samad marks his European debut with «Scolding», a harrowing piece on the angst-ridden post-war era in Iraq. (Photo: © Abbas Kowsari)
Details & Dates


What Can Art Do?

The role of the artist in relation to his or her art runs like a thread through this year’s programme: What role do artists play in this increasingly globalised world, challenged as it is by injustice, war and crisis? Where do the boundaries between fiction and reality, biography and artistic licence, lie? Why do artists expose themselves to the pressure to succeed and often to a precarious way of life? «House of Dance» by the New York director Tina Satter lets us in on the desires and pipe dreams of four tap dancers. In «Stadtmusikanten» the young collective papst&co. investigates the question of trade or calling with for talented musicians. The Australian Back to Back Theatre and its cast of actors with disabilities present «Ganesh Versus the Third Reich» (picture above), a touching and intelligent investigation into power and the exclusion, or even extinction, of outsiders. As part of an investigation into the ambivalent role of Indian female performers, the German Flinn Theater introduces the first ever theatre app: «Shilpa – The Indian Singer App», a musical theatre performance with a highly amusing pinch of feminism. (Photo: © Jeff Busby)
Details & Dates


Hybrid Forms

The 2014 programme features a whole series of productions that are a successful crossbreed between two artistic ways of expression and defy all traditional classification. Two productions combine theatre and film in an ingenious way: «Cineastas» by the Argentinian director Mariano Pensotti (picture above) as well as the latest creation of the talented Brazilian director Christiane Jatahy «What if they went to Moscow?», a loose adaption from Chekhov’s «Three Sisters». «Germinal» by the French-Belgium duo Halory Goerger & Antoine Defoort is an effortless and charming combination of visual and performing arts with humanities and information science. The Swiss duo Lutz & Guggisberg present their go at witty entertainment involving the worlds of visual arts and narrative theatre. Alessandro Sciarroni, the hotshot of the Italian dance scene, has created a highly surprising marriage of dance and juggling with «Untitled – I will be there when you die». (Photo: © Carlos Furman Arte)
Details & Dates


Last but not least

The programme features two outstanding representatives of Nouveau Cirque: the reckless, sassy and trashy Race Horse Company from Finland and the debut of the poetic and spectacular Belgian company Cie. du Poivre Rose accompanied live by the Czech singer and violinist Iva Bittová.
The third edition of Short Pieces is again a central part of the festival. Apart from young performers from Asia, Latin America, the Balkans and the Middle East, this year's showcase also features two promising artists from Switzerland.
And of course, dance and performance will get their dues as well: The celebrated French choreographer Olivier Dubois and an ensemble of 18 dancers kick off the festival with «Tragédie». Naked dancers move and whirl across the stage. What starts as a seemingly harmless and straightforward routine transforms into a hurricane of moving bodies. Archaic, touching, hypnotic and deeply human. Dubois himself considers his piece «more a world experience than a choreography». A perfect motto for this year's festival. (Photo: © Antoinette Chaudron)
Details & Daten


Programme & Box Office

Finalised programm: The complete and finalised programme featuring all concerts, open-air events, presentations on the Zentral stage and all other information on the festival will be published on Friday, 4 July on our website.
Printed programme: Monday, 7 July as a supplement in Tages-Anzeiger, subsequently on sale at major newsagents throughout Switzerland for CHF 3.-
Box office sales: start Wednesday, 9 July, 8:00 hrs
Tickets: www.theaterspektakel.ch  and www.starticket.ch


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