49 BITEF 15 - Belgrade International Theatre Festival, 17-24.09.2015 (Belgrade, Serbia)

myk

18/08/2015

BELGRADE INTERNATIONAL THEATRE FESTIVAL – BITEF is one of the oldest, most relevant, most prestigious events and a rarity in the family of major world festivals. It was founded by a decision of the Assembly of the City of Belgrade as a regular annual event of particular importance for the City of Belgrade on 26 December 1967.

The concept and programme of every BITEF reflect the zeitgeist, a particular spiritual and artistic cross-section of theatrical research and avant-garde trends aiming to promote new theatre tendencies.

WHAT NOURISHES US? CURRENT STRATEGIES OF THE EUROPEAN POLITICAL THEATRE

Is there a specific idiom of the contemporary political theatre which is the product of the spirit of the age? Is it at all possible to talk about a singular notion of the contemporary European political theatre without falling into a trap we regularly fall in when we talk, for instance, about the common European market? Is a genuine rebellion possible in state theatre institutions or does it require an out-of-institution position? From the point of view of financing of culture, what is, after all, an out-of-institution position? From the point of view of neo-liberal capitalism, what is, after all, rebellion? And what is its purpose today?

New theatre tendencies of this year’s BITEF talk about contemporary performing practices in a very large and somewhat arbitrary area of contemporary political theatre. The subtitle of this sub-selection was inspired by the production The Discreet Charm of Marxism by Bojan Đorđev (production DasArts, Amsterdam and TkH/Walking Theory, Belgrade) which in its turn drew on Luis Bunuel’s cult film The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie. One of the themes in Bunuel’s film and Đorđev’s production is the insatiable hunger of the humankind – even when food is there. Whilst in Bojan Đorđev’s production the spectators participate in a six-course meal made of papery quotes from different Marxist philosophers, the real food expects them on shelves which are expected to hold books. When we ask ‘What nourishes us’, we indirectly ask ‘What do we crave for?’ In times when, as Brecht put it, feeding frenzy comes first and moral rules follow, when bankers become prophets and a rebellion mere commodity, it is important to ask these questions, particularly in the theatre.

Festival programme:

17th September

Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, Berlin, Germany

Based on Dieter Roth

MURMEL, MURMEL

Directed by: Herbert Fritsch

18th September

SNT Drama Ljubljana, Ljubljana City Theatre, Cankar Hall, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Homer

THE ILIAD

Directed by: Jernej Lorenci

19th September

Serbian National Theatre, Novi Sad, Serbia

Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy

THE DEATH OF IVAN ILYCH

Directed by:Tomi Janežič

20th-21th September

Mladinsko Theatre (Ljubljana, Slovenia), Croatian National Theatre Ivan pl. Zajc (Rijeka, Croatia), BITEF (Belgrade, Serbia), MOT (Skoplje, Macedonia)

KOMPLEX RISTIĆ

Directed by: Oliver Frljić

21th September

Croatian National Theatre, Zagreb, Croatia

WE ARE KINGS, NOT HUMANS

Direction and coreography: Matija Ferlin

21th September

Centre for Cultural Decontamination, Belgrade, Serbia and Ibsen Scholarships, Skien, Norway

IBSEN’S AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE AS A BRECHT’S TEACHING-PLAY
Directed by: Zlatko Paković

22nd September

Bureau Cassiopée, Paris, France

ADISHATZ/ADIEU