ACTRESS
Self-portrait- dreams of the life and art of Ellen Thesleff
Premiere 15.10.2021 at Tehdas Teatteri
Tehdas Teatteri Premiere click here!
"Self-portrait- dreams of the life and art of Ellen Thesleff" is a play by a team of two actors, a musician, an art historian, a scenographer and a light designer to visualize an impressionistic dream-like world on stage in a series of self-portraits. Inspiration for these scenes comes from the life and art of one of the first Finnish expressionists; Ellen Thesleff (1869-1954). Her letters, spoken during the performance in five different languages she spoke, bring the voice of the artist in to this day. One of her most well known pieces; "the Self-portrait" is a product of one year of drawing with pencil and sepia on paper. The performance is a result of a long lasting academic and artistic research taking the creative team to several expeditions and work-in-progress presentations to Kuopio, Murole, Oulu, Helsinki and Turku. The performance presents an idea that history is not just something left behind but instead is present in our everyday life and the play explores the ways of remembering and expressing the past. The stage, which represents the canvas, is painted in to a series of moving portraits via physical theatre, electro-acoustic music and visual art; screens and light.
Performance is a collective creation by:
Actor Anu Almagro
Actor Johanna Jauhiainen
Art historian Hanna-Reetta Schreck
Musician Pauli Lyytinen
Scenographer Jaana Kurttila
Light designer Janne Teivainen
Apocrypha
Premiere November 2020 at Piekarnia Wroclaw
Song of the Goat Theatre Production
"Apocrypha, often derived from Gnostic or Judaic traditions, did not enjoy a favorable opinion among the oldest church writers, yet they were very popular and widespread to the point that the Church warned the faithful against them and firmly considered them false and deserving of rejection."
The performance deals with the subject of the non-canonical image of Jesus, inspired by the Apocrypha, that is, hidden, unscriptural books. It presents the history of people from his closest surroundings. A story of a mission that has been and is still misinterpreted by believers of different faiths.
The show is in English and Coptic.
Director: GRZEGORZ BRAL
Screenplay and texts: ALICJA BRAL
Music: MACIEJ RYCHŁY
Scenography: ROBERT FLORCZAK
Costumes: CRISTINA GONZALES GADEA
Masks: ALICE GRUCA
Light design: TOMASZ FILIPIAK
Sound: WALDEMAR TRZASKA
Choir preparation: VOLODYMYR ANDRUSHCHAK
CAST:
Anu Almagro, Alicja Bral, Daniela Schott, Edyta Krzemień, Isabella Nefar, Sonja Maria Schwaiger, Kamil Piotr Adamus, Volodymyr Andrushchak, Nikita Delti Pinos, Yorgos Onisiforou, Gustavo Oliveira, Ahmed Slimani, Przemek Wasilkowski
SEVEN GATES OF THEBES
First part of the Anty-Gone Triptych
Premiere: November 2018
A rhythmic and loud performance; a distinct rock opera. Each rhythm played on medieval cauldrons is the rhythm of ancient Greek poetry. Each tells a different emotion, a seperate event. Creon’s world is one caged in anger and chaos; filled with violence and usurpation. Every strong emotion is torture to others. Creon fights with a woman – Antigone. Out of fear of this woman, a murderer emerges. Why does the ruler dread her? The stage is filled to the brim with masculine elements; aggressive, merciless. Pervaded with melodeclamations, dialogue and chants, the music fits the text of Greek tragedy.
Director: Grzegorz Bral
Dramaturgy: Alicja Bral
Greek rhythms on drums: Radosław Nowakowski
Electric guitar: Kamil Abt
Drums: Przemysław Michalak
Composition and arrangements: Dimitris Varkas, Kamil Abt
Translations into Greek: Dimitris Varkas
Choreography: Julien Touati
Costumes: Alicja Gruca
Scenography: Robert Florczak, Grzegorz Bral
Sound: Waldemar Trzaska
Lighting: Wojciech Maniewski
Cast: Kamil Abt, Anu Almagro, Gabriel Almagro, Mikołaj Bońkowski, Jakub Lechki, Dominik Kujawa, Bogdan Koca, Julien Touati, Przemysław Michalak, Dimitris Varkas
Photo by Dawid Linkowski. Gdansk Shakespeare Theatre Festival. Song of the Goat Theatre.
Photo by Dawid Linkowski. Gdansk Shakespeare Theatre Festival. Song of the Goat Theatre.
Photo by Dawid Linkowski. Gdansk Shakespeare Theatre Festival. Song of the Goat Theatre.
Photo by Dawid Linkowski. Gdansk Shakespeare Theatre Festival. Song of the Goat Theatre.
HAMLET - A COMMENTARY
Premiere: 2 JULY 2017
Hamlet - A Commentary is based on Shakespeare's drama and it is an intense interpretation, a vibrant reflection, a full expression of what was merely mentioned and not said explicitly by the author.
The show takes place two months before the proper play's plot – on the night when the old king was murdered. The night turns into a Shakespearian vigil, similar to pagan festivals in honour of the spirits of the dead. On the stage there are some characters who were featured in Shakespeare's play and some who were not.
We look at what goes on in the characters' heads and conjecture about what led to the tragedy. On the surface of the relations, nothing seems to be going on while painful secrets awaken in the characters. It's a drama about energy which demands to be revealed and Hamlet is its medium.
The show is based on the polyphonic song structure. Fourteen actors interpret the characters, events and emotions through sounds. "Hamlet – a commentary" is a theatre experiment. The text is given a melody. It is not presented in a traditional narration but as musical harmonies. The words and music reflect the characters' and family's inner structures.
Director: Grzegorz Bral
Music: Jean- Claude Acquaviva, Maciej Rychły
Dramatist: Alicja Bral
Costumes: Alicja Gruca
Stage design: Robert Florczak
Conductor: Lilianna Krych
Lighting: Wojciech Maniewski
Cast: Anu Almagro, Julianna Habel - Bloodgood, Jenny Kaatz, Olga Kunicka, Natalia Voskoboynikov, Magda Wojnarowska, Volodymyr Andrushchak, Mikołaj Bońkowski, Rafał Habel - Bloodgood, Dominik Kujawa, Julien Touati, Dimitris Varkas, Łukasz Wójcik, Bogdan Koca, Maciej Rychły
Photo by Mateusz Bral, Song of The Goat Theatre
Photo by Mateusz Bral, Song of The Goat Theatre
Photo by Mateusz Bral, Song of The Goat Theatre
Photo by Mateusz Bral, Song of The Goat Theatre
CRAZY GOD
Premiere: 1-4 JULY 2016
An inspiration for “Crazy God”, a new performance of the Song of the Goat Theatre, is William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The classic text was clashed with a brutal work by Heiner Müller, Hamlet Machine and with Allan Ginsberg’s Howl.
The performance asks a hard-line question about the limits of human brutality. How deep can a man immerse in madness when profit and power become his goal?
The artistic team, consisting of performers of fourteen different nationalities, searches for an answer to questions posed this way, relating to different social and religious systems and the figure of a man, who filled with pride felt to be a god on the earth.
The performance joins physical actions with text and polyphony, which is characteristic for the Song of the Goat Theatre.
Director: Grzegorz Bral
Composer: Katarzyna Szwed
Costume Design:Alicja Gruca
Scenography: Robert Florczak
Dramaturgy: Alicja Bral
Instrumental compositions and arrangments: Adam Clifford
Choir preparation: Kelvin Chan
Cast:
Anu Almagro
Jenny Kaatz
Ifi Ude
Julianna Bloodgood
Olga Kunicka
Natsumi Kuroda
Kasia Jaekowicz
Colette Dalal Tchantcho
Adam Clifford
Henry McGrath
Rafał Habel
Dimitris Varkas
Kelvin Chan
Haitham Assem Tantawy
Angelo Romagnoli
Julien Touati
Peyman Fallahian Sichani
Songs of Lear
Songs of Lear is a non-linear dramatic event that shows the world of subtle energies and rhythms that govern Shakespeare’s tragedy. The ensemble members have chosen crucial scenes from King Lear to weave a story out of gestures, words and music. Each song is a starting point for another ‘dramatic poem’. Here the music becomes character, relationships and events. The creative process has been divided into several phases: preparation of the concert, dramatizing the songs (an oratorio), creating movement and visual structures, integrating text, music and movement and finally molding the performance into a mature shape. Songs of Lear is a constantly evolving creative research project in which audience may witness a very intimate artistic process.
Songs of Lear had its international premiere during Fringe Festival in Edinburgh in August 2012, where it received three prestigious awards: Scotsman Fringe First, Herald Archangel and Musical Theatre Matters Special Award. Songs of Learwas also enlisted on the very top of The List as the highest ranked performance during the 2012 festival.
Anu Almagro was nominated by the Polish Theatre magazine "Teatr" as one of the best actresses in Poland in 2013 for her performance as Cordelia in Songs of Lear.
Director: Grzegorz Bral
Music: Jean–Claude Acquaviva, Maciej Rychły
Preparation of songs: Kacper Kuszewski
Actors: Anu Almagro, Monika Dryl, Julianna Bloodgood, Emma Bonnici, Jenny Kaatz, Kacper Kuszewski, Rafał Habel, Gabriel Gawin, Henry McGrath , Łukasz Wójcik and Maciej Rychły
Portraits of the Cherry Orchard
“Portraits of The Cherry Orchard” is based on Anton Chekhov’s drama „The Cherry Orchard” and is directed by Grzegorz Bral. The musical interpretation of Anton Chekhov’s drama has been composed by Guy Pearson and Maciej Rychły. It is the story of a lost paradise in which the eponymously squandered „Cherry Orchard” is symbolic of spoiled values becoming poetical myth. The characters’ memories of a former existence become an unreachable perfection. The Director has created for each character a story which is expressesed through individual gesture, movement and dance. Underlined by an ever present musical score, relations are formed, actions and characters defned and using Osip Mandelstam’s and Anna Akhmatova’s lyrical poetry, he creates notable musical poems.
Director: Grzegorz Bral
Choreography: Agata Makowska
Music: Guy Pearson, Maciej Rychły
Musicians: Guy Pearson, Maciej Rychły
Cast: Dimitris Varkas, Anu Almagro, Paolo Garghentino, Emma Bonnici, Henry McGrath, Julianna Bloodgood, Katarzyna Janekowicz, Łukasz Wójcik, Olga Kunicka, Rafał Habel
Macbeth
Song of The Goat Theatre company's Macbeth is an ongoing exploration of the musicality of the sounds and dynamic physicality of Shakespeare's poetic drama.
Corsican polyphonic singing together with music creates a dream-like ground for the text, action and feeling of the tragedy.
"Words make you think a thought. Music makes you feel a feeling. A song makes you feel a thought." E.Y.Harburg
DIRECTOR: Grzegorz Bral
COSTUME DESIGN: Cristina Gonzalez
STAGE DESIGN: Mira Żelechower-Aleksiun, Grzegorz Bral
LIGHTING: Robert Baliński
INSTRUMENTS: Rafał Habel
MUSIC: arranged on the basis of songs of A Filetta (Corsica)
CAST:
Macbeth – Gabriel Gawin
Lady Macbeth – Anna Zubrzycki
Macduff – Ian Morgan
Duncan – Janusz Andrzejewski
Malcolm – Ewan Downie
Banquo – Kacper Kuszewski
Witch– Anu Salonen