Final Press release from the XV Europe Theatre prize held in Craiova, Romania
The XV Europe Theatre Prize took place from 23 to 26 April in Craiova, Romania, following on from the prestigious International Shakespeare Festival, which this year reached its tenth edition. This year the ETP, held under the patronage of the city of Craiova, which chose to link the two events, was organized in conjunction with the Shakespeare Foundation and the ‘Marin Sorescu’ National Theatre, with the contribution of the Romanian Institute of Culture.
During the first day, as a fitting continuation of the International Shakespeare Festival, the Prize hosted two performances inspired by the Bard of Avon as part of the Returns section: Giulio Cesare, pezzi staccati, by Romeo Castellucci, and Richard III, directed by Thomas Ostermeier.
Richard III, preceded in the morning by a meeting with the German director, is based on a new German translation and adaptation of the play by Marius von Mayenburg, and is the fruit of a long period of research involving the director, actors, musicians and technicians, aiming to rediscover the energy and the meaning of the play and its central theme of power, as well as the subtle language that expresses its essence.
The costumes, the powerful, disturbing techno music, with live percussion, video projections and the use of imposing technical means create a decidedly contemporary feel, sometimes static, sometimes highly athletic, which manage to convey the “Elizabethan” meaning of the play. The performance in the packed ‘Marin Sorescu’ Theatre was met with great public acclaim.
The pieces ‘detached’ from the celebrated Julius Caesar by Romeo Castellucci (Societas Raffaello Sanzio) are an example of semiotic, and above all physiological theatrical research. Shakespeare’s play thus literally assumes a body through the throat, the organ of phonation, which at a certain point loses the parole and draws our attention to the phoné and visions of a tragedy founded on the rhetoric of power. Its emotional effect, its formal perfection and the intelligent use of the entrance hall of the University of Craiova as a perfect performance space for this theatrical experiment created a unique, unrepeatable atmosphere.
The programme for Sunday 24 April began at the Marin Sorescu National Theatre with a conference, curated by Ulrich Kuon and accompanied by brief musical performances, on the work and figure of Andreas Kriegenburg, a “total” man of the theatre and a unique figure on the contemporary European scene.
The morning continued with a round table on the social role of theatre in our times, organized by the Union of Theatres of Europe. Of particular interest were the “borderline” experiences described by William Docolomansky, Armando Punzo and Pippo del Bono, which showed how contemporary theatre can still have an effect on the lives and the possibilities for expression of marginalized sectors of our society.
In the early afternoon Joyce McMillan introduced the work of the National Theatre of Scotland. The meeting focused on the approach to the working class in Scottish theatre and the method of “mobile” theatre that tours various places and communities to create theatre performances of remarkable quality.
In the evening, the Colibri Theatre hosted the National Theatre of Scotland’s production Last Dream (on Earth), by Kai Fischer, in which the audience listens through headphones to the story of the attempt to reach Europe by an anonymous African refugee, and to that of the equally dangerous space journey undertaken Yuri Gagarin, the first space hero, who travelled in a tiny, precarious metal capsule.
The day came to a close with the projection of the documentary film on Silviu Purcarete’s staging of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, a homage to the visionary talent of the great Romanian director.
The third day of the event began in the spacious foyer of the Sorescu National Theatre with a conference on the work of Juan Mayorga, presented by Emilio Javier Peral Vega. The various contributions from collaborators, critics, scholars and translators of Mayorga’s theatre threw light on the methods of the Spanish playwright and director, whose theatre has won acclaim in various countries around the world. In the development of his texts and in his productions, Mayorga sets out from a rigorous philosophical and mathematical approach that is not without a certain irony, and that leaves the audience to fill the ‘gestalt’ opened by his theatre with their own meanings. The meeting ended with a demonstration of his method, with extracts from the play The Jugoslavs.
In the afternoon two further meetings were devoted to the prize-winners in the Theatrical Realities section: the first, presented by Noémi Herczog, with the Hungarian director Victor Bodò, the creator of rigorous, independent theatre and the founder of the Sputnik group, now disbanded, who continues with his collaborators to develop a collective, though not “mystical” form of theatre, in which dramaturgy, technical skills, actorial research, music and dance come together in a collaborative effort that gives it a precise, rigorous, and recognizable character, shorn of the flaws of “official theatre” and of the tricks and habits of actors and director. The second meeting, presented by Georges Banu, was devoted to the theatre of Jöel Pommerat, considered in France as the heir to Peter Brook and Ariane Mnouchkine. Speakers highlighted the fact that Pommerat prefers an empty stage on which contemporary life is displayed almost solely through the lights that mark the bodies of the actors, freed from their role as mere performers to become a living part of an extremely realistic theatrical language and poetics. The day ended at the Colibri Theatre with a performance of Reikiavik, written and directed by Juan Mayorga. Inspired by the famous chess match between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky, Reikiavik deals with the themes of the Cold War, communism, capitalism, chess, theatre and men who live “the lives of others”, and embodies the author’s idea of “art of the imagination”.
The final day of the event was devoted to the Winner of the XV Europe Theatre Prize, the Swedish dancer and choreographer Mats Ek. During the morning Ek took part in a meeting, introduced by Margareta Sörenson. After acknowledging his debt to his mother, Birgit Ragnhild Cullberg, who breathed new life into Swedish dance, and to Pina Bausch, who invented modern and contemporary dance-theatre, he explained that for him, beyond any analysis of his work, however appreciable, creating a choreography is like writing on sand or on water: what remains is sensations and emotions. He also pointed out that women have always played a central role in his creations: even when they perform mundane everyday actions such as hoovering energetically between the lavatory and the bidet, as in the famous march of the vacuum cleaners in one of his best-known choreographies, they are as noble, graceful and powerful as queens.
In the afternoon, the Theatre of the Students’ House hosted a performance of the German-language play Nathan der Weise, directed by Andreas Kriegenburg, produces by Deutsches Theater.Written by the Enlightenment philosopher and dramaturg G. E. Lessing in 1779, the play is set in Jerusalem during the Third Crusade, and describes how the wise Jewish merchant Nathan, the enlightened Sultan Saladin and an initially anonymous Templar manage to overcome the differences between Judaism, Islam and Christianity in the besieged holy city. Kriegenburg tells the story with five actors who perform various roles and a set formed by a mobile wooden wall, which through simple scene shifts is turned into the city walls or various interior spaces.
The prize-giving ceremony, live broadcast by National tv, brought the intense four day event to a close.
After greetings from the Mayor of Craiova Lia Olguta, the President of the Romanian Institute of Culture Radu Boroianu, the director and founder of the International Shakespeare Festival Emil Boroghina and the director of the ‘Marin Sorescu’ National Theatre Alexandro Boreanu, on behalf of the jury Georges Banu awarded a Special Prize to Silviu Purcarete for his creative work as a theatre director in Romania and in the rest of the world. The New Theatrical Realities Prize was awarded to Viktor Bodó, director (Hungary), Andreas Kriegenburg, director (Germany), Juan Mayorga, dramaturg (Spain), the National Theatre of Scotland (Scotland/United Kingdom) and Joël Pommerat, ‘an “author of spectacles”, as he likes to describe himself (France).
The ceremony was concluded with the award of the XV Europe Theatre Prize for Theatre to Mats Ek, presented by the Secretary General of the EPT Alessandro Martinez. After the award Mats Ek presented Axe with Ana Laguna and Yvan Auzely, two icons of contemporary dance. Axe marks Ek’s farewell to choreography: a brief duet, a true masterpiece that deals with a recurrent theme in his choreographies, the profound relationship between men and women. In this case a couple, no longer young, oscillate between the practical necessities of life and a time, rediscovered by the woman, for contact, feelings, and the important things in life.