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PRESS RELEASE / BAZAAR FESTIVAL STARTS THIS FRIDAY WITH STIRRING PERFORMANCE BY THEATRE INNOVATOR ZIEMILSKI

12.03. 2018

From 16 to 18 March 2018, the 4th annual Bazaar theatre and dance festival presents performances from Central and Eastern Europe. The festival opens with a performance of One Gestureby Poland’s Nowy Teatr, the first ever Prague of this important Warsaw venue. The performance, directed by leading director Wojtek Ziemilski, will take place at 8pm on Friday 16 March at the Ponec Theatre. In explaining his choice of One Gesture, Bazaar’s programming director Ewan McLaren says, “We have chosen to open the festival with the absolute Central European event of the season, which will captivate audiences interested in theatre as well as dance. Four hearing-impaired performers break down communication barriers in antotally new way.” At the heart of the festival is the Saturday Bazaar, a survey of excerpts from works-in-progress in the fields of theatre and dance from Slovenia, Croatia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Austria, and other countries. For a complete program, visit www.alfredvedvore.cz/en/bazaar.

For its fourth instalment, the 2018 Bazaar is focusing on the theme of finding a common voice. “At a time when communications seem paralyzed by the fractured nature of our society, the festival takes an optimistic look at communities that have found their voice recently and are putting it to good use,” adds Bazaar’s programming director Ewan McLaren. Over the course of three intense festival days, audiences can look forward to a survey of progressive and controversial stage works and excerpts from works-in-progress, accompanied by public discussions and also featuring Bush Hartshorn’s workshop Giving and Receiving Feedback.

The Bazaar Festival opens on Friday 16 March at 8pm at the Ponec Theatre with the internationally acclaimed performance One Gesture by Poland’s progressive Nowy Teatr. Four hearing-impaired performers take a humorous but uncompromising look at communications barriers between people of all stripes, hearing-impaired or not. One Gesture, which has won awards in Zurich, Sarajevo, Dresden, and Łódź, is directed by leading European theatre innovator Wojtek Ziemilski.

The epicentre of the 2018 Bazaar is the Saturday Bazaar at Studio Alta. Over the course of a single day, audiences can look forward to four excerpts from theater and dance projects currently being developed by artists from Slovenia, Croatia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Austria, and other countries. Viktor Černický wanders with the audience through the folds of reality, a musical instrument becomes part of the dancer’s body in the solo by Nastasja Štefanič, Lea Kukovičič and Bria de la Mare use photographs to demonstration how performance can change audience members, and Collective B creates a fictional massacre to reinterpret the mass media’s image of terrorism. The Saturday Bazaar concludes with a discussion moderated by Alice Koubová.

That evening, in a polished performance combining confident stand-up with movement performance, Hungarian performer Zsuzsa Rózsavölgyi reveals our taboos about what it means to live in a fertile woman’s body in Central Europe in 2018. The performance with the simple title 1.7 will take place at 8pm on Saturday 17 March at Studio Alta. This playful and sarcastic solo project about the female body and women’s roles explores social barriers and the castration of womanhood by advertising, media manipulation, tradition or simple stupidity.

At 6pm on Sunday 18 March, Tereza Hradilková presents her 2017 dance performance Swish at the Ponec Theatre. Jump-rope may be a children’s game, but it is also about ambition and self-improvement. Are we jumping over ourselves and pushing our limits, or are we stuck in a circle from which there is no way out?

The festival concludes with the folk celebration Šibřinky by Handa Gote Research & Development at 8pm on Sunday 18 March at the Alfred ve dvoře Theatre. This improvised performance and event of indefinable length and scope seamlessly combines theater with film, refreshments, and sporting events while encouraging us to consider the dark side of Czech identity, folk customs and folklore.

Full information is available online at www.alfredvedvore.cz/en/bazaar.

This year, festival passes will be available for CZK 800/500. Admission to individual performances costs CZK 200/100, except for Swish (admission CZK 220/120) and One Gesture (CZK 300/200). Festival passes and tickets for individual performances can be purchased online at GoOut, on the websites of the participating theaters, and at the Alfred ve dvoře ticket office.

Program for the 2018 Bazaar Festival:
FRIDAY, 16 March
20h / PONEC – the Venue for Dance / One Gesture / Wojtek Ziemilski, Wojciech Pustoła & Nowy Teatr

SATURDAY, 17 March
4:30pm / Studio ALTA /Saturday Bazaar
1) Pli / Viktor Černický (SK/CZ)
2) Me, Viola and I / Nastasja Štefanič (HR)
3) Behind in Place, Later than in Time / Lea Kukovičič & Bria de la Mare (SLO/CYM)
4) Wonderful World / Collective B (PL/CZ/FR/AT)
8pm / Studio ALTA / 1.7 / Zsuzsa Rózsavölgyi

SUNDAY, 18 March
6pm / PONEC– the Venue for Dance / Swish / Tereza Hradilková and coll.
8pm / Alfred ve dvoře / Šibřinky / Handa Gote Research & Development

The festival also includes the four-day workshop Giving and Receiving Feedback by Bush Hartshorn (UK), which is open to the general public. (15–18 March / Alfred ve dvoře)