On August 6, 2024, the press conference of the 11th Wuzhen Theater Festival was held in Wuzhen. The theme of this year's festival is "like a rock" - spirit is like a torch, faith is like a rock, and it will be held from October 17th to October 27th.
During the 11-day theatrical extravaganza, 24 productions from 11 countries will present 86 performances at 11 theaters in Wuzhen. The 24 works include 13 cutting-edge works from United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Poland, Austria, Denmark, Belgium and other overseas countries, as well as 11 top Chinese works, including world-famous troupes, masterpieces, classic new choreography, avant-garde drama, body dance drama, academy observation and other excellent works, including a public performance as special attention.
【A】International theatre giants gather in Wuzhen
The famous European theater and opera director Krzysztof · Warikovsky, with the new theater in Warsaw, directly attacked the essence of human existence with "Let's Go", and explored the meaning of life in the tension between comedy and death; Warddi ·Muward, one of the most important directors and playwrights of the contemporary French-language theatre scene, presents "By the Sea" with the National Theatre of Colin, listening to the anxieties of love, sorrow, fear and death for the younger generation.
Japan's national treasure theater master Tadashi Suzuki returns with the Suzuki Toshiga Theater Company to bring the work "Bacchus"; Interpret Euripides' Greece tragedy in an oriental way. World class theater master Eugenio · Barba led the Odin Theater Company to add Shakespeare characters in "Hamlet's Cloud", allowing him to experience and witness the tragedy of Hamlet; Thomas · Richards, one of the most influential dramatists of the 20th century, brought the Unbounded Theatre Company to "The Inana Project", from which the Sumerian priestess Inana, a symbol of femininity, strength, spirituality and fortitude, came to earth; The famous Chinese dramatist Lai Shengchuan and the Shanghai Theatre present "River/Clouds/Space", depicting a missed era with delicate and rich brushstrokes; Nicholas ·Habiyan, who is regarded as one of the best puppeteers in the world today, has teamed up with the Viennese writer Paulus · Hogatler to bring one of the most important theaters in the German-speaking world to the Deutsches Theater Berlin through the puppet show "Karl · Bohm", bringing a much-anticipated and controversial conductor to life.
[B] bravely stand at the head of the tide and pay tribute to the classics of the times
The absurdist drama classic "Waiting for Godot" meets with the avant-garde and personal Chinese theater director Meng Jinghui across time and space, and the great tension between the absurdity of drama and the reality of life is about to leap onto the stage.
The pure Brechtian allegorical drama "Peterman and the Arsonist", under the rearrangement of Suzanne · Schmelcher, closely follows the pulse of the times in socio-political, cultural and aesthetic aspects, and once again sounded the alarm bell of half a century ago; Li Jianjun, an important practitioner of contemporary Chinese theater art, challenged Bertolt · Brecht's opera "The Three-Cent Opera" to recreate a "alienated" story about eternal betrayal, creating an anti-mythological myth.
[C] New forces go to the drama festival together
Wang Chong, the initiator of New Wave theater, has created an innovative masterpiece "Lying Flat 2.0", which interacts the script created by artificial intelligence with the "lying flat" style of drama viewing, opening up a unique artistic experience.
Hu Xuanyi and He Qi, theater creators who came out of the youth competition, returned with "Summer Sound: The Seagull" to reconstruct Chekhov's famous "The Seagull" from a female perspective, pointing out the eternal subject between reality and ideals; Xiao Jing, an outstanding young director, joined hands with the Institute of Daily Poetry to bring the work "Running to the Moon", which subverts the linear narrative in Lu Min's novel of the same name, shows the portrait of contemporary urban people, and outlines the distant "utopia" in everyone's heart; Bianca · Thomas, who is active in the field of visual arts, collaborated with ChatGPT to write the script of "Artificial Intelligence and Abel", reflecting on the major propositions of science and technology ethics through very interesting performances; "Werther: Adapted from a Novel by Johann · Wolfgang · Von · Goethe" is co-written by director Sebastian Céser · and the Master of Fine Arts Troupe of Nanjing University, translating Werther from Goethe's pen to modern Nanjing, and then glimpsing the troubles of youth; The student work "Epilogue/Witch's Hammer/Alarm" by students of the Altez University of the Arts interweaves the keen insights of young people with the creative language of the stage, focusing on issues such as existence, patriarchal oppression, and feminism.
【D】Dance aesthetics explores the boundaries of expression
A Day in the Life of a Dancer, co-choreographed by Eugenio · Barba, Lorenzo · Gregers and Julia · Valré, presents the dancer's debut anxiety and dedication to his profession through rigid and repetitive body movements.
Independent dancer Soren · Weinacht's "All to Dust" blends dance, comedy, narrative and drama to humorously dissolve taboo red threads when people talk about death; The fluid space theater company "Medea" collects associative fragments of ancient Greece Medea mythology, intervenes media devices in performances, and reflects on the transformation of the old and new order; The famous France choreographer Jerome · Bell's "Extravaganza" subverts the definition of dance, puts aside the ultimate pursuit of dance skills, and leads the audience to indulge in the pure joy of dance; Belgium's "Fingertip Love" by the Finger Theatre Company dances together in the long river of history with flying fingertips, composing a chronicle epic about dance.
【E】Bold cross-border to create infinite possibilities
Yu Rongjun, a national first-class screenwriter, visited Wuzhen with his first self-written and directed work "Unspeakable", bringing more possibilities to the stage from a "gold medal" screenwriter to a "newcomer" director.
Li Luka, who has been deeply involved in the creation of drama as a music designer and actor, brought "Animals That Can Be Called Human" for the first time as a director, constantly exploring the psychological dilemmas of human beings and the enterprising spirit of exploration with a visual stage language. Director Ma Yan and Leyi Theatre Troupe brought a public performance "Reversing the Future", in which identities are reversed, strengths and weaknesses are reversed, the future and the present are inverted, and science fiction and reality are intertwined. Eliminate the barriers of expression through drama and witness the infinite possibilities of sincere expression on the stage.
The 11th Wuzhen Theatre Festival will also launch a new unit "Granary of Theatre Dreams", once again broadening the boundaries of theatre. In addition, the registration for the Youth Competition and the Guzhen Carnival is still ongoing. The organizers will close the registration on August 20 and announce the shortlist on September 22, looking forward to more young theater artists bringing more and more excellent original drama works.
The 11th Wuzhen Theater Festival will be held on August 17 at 10 a.m. and September 3 at 10 a.m. on the Damai platform for two rounds of ticketing, and the ticket prices for the invited plays will implement the policy of benefiting the people at a low price within 380 yuan per average price. In addition, this year's Wuzhen Theater Festival will implement the "one ticket, one certificate" real-name ticket purchase policy, and will also provide refund channels for audiences who purchase tickets for specially invited plays, and formulate refund rules, so that the audience can make a ladder refund within the corresponding time period.
Text丨Reporter Ai Xiuyutu丨Organizer
Editor: Li Li