What fate will Iphigenia choose when she is given a choice for the very first time? How can we stop the hands that control us, and who will tell the puppets about them so that puppet plays are no longer exclusively sad? The stories of Greek mythology were written thousands of years ago, yet their themes remain painfully relevant to this very day. The students from South Korea created a play that merges Greek myths with traditional Korean puppet theatre (Deolmi), in which puppets are manipulated by the napes of their necks. That’s where the play found its title – The Nape.
A princess waits for her prince to come. But he’s nowhere to be found. This performance of Shooting Snow White showed why fairy tales need to be deconstructed. Anna Lisa Grebe's performance, which could be classified as physical theatre, portrayed not only the stereotypical perception of female beauty, but also the general pressure on women to assume passive roles in society and relationships. She also showed how the patriarchy imposes itself on the men who seemingly benefit from it.
How would ancient dramas look today? Although there are no bloodthirsty kings any more, drunkenness with power and lust for war are faults that resonate with people even today. The students of the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media brought the mythical figures of ancient Greece to the Divadlo na Orlí in Brno and showed how they would live and act in our own times.
How can today’s youth and students stage ancient drama?The students from Hannover approached this in their own way: their production Dionysus City demonstrates that ancient myths strongly resemble TV soap operas. Passion, revenge, lovers, prophets, family intrigues, and yes, even incest (though that’s not something we typically see in classic soap operas) are all present.
If we didn’t read fairy tales, we wouldn’t know that good wins over evil, love over hate, and diligence over laziness. The prince comes to save the princess, they get married and live happily ever after. But what if the prince doesn’t come? What if the princess doesn’t want to be saved and what if she doesn’t want to wait anymore? In the play Shooting Snow White, Anna Lisa Grebe from the Accademia Dimitri excels as she takes on various roles, from princess to prince to speaking mirror. She holds up the mirror to society, while she, through physical and mental nudity, shows that gender equality doesn’t exist, even in fairytales.
Druhý deň festivalu sa niesol v znamení antickej tragédie. Jednu z nich nám priniesla Korea National University of Arts. Tvorcovia prišli s inscenáciou The Nape, v ktorej spojili rovno tri Euripidove hry – Ifigénia v Aulide, Agamemnón a Élektra.
