The Battle
(Bitkata)
By Heiner Müller
Directed by Dimitar Nedkov (Bulgaria)
Translation Ivan Stanev
Scenography Alexandre Smolianov
Costumes Ljudmila Tenekedjieva
Music Alexandre Andreevski (DJ No Good)
Lighting Jo Walker (Great-Britain), Simon Macer Wright (Bulgaria)
Project Manager Simon Plumridge
Producer Philippe Le Moine
Co-ordinators Vera Gotseva, Mariella Pentcheva
Starring
Mariana Krumova (Bulgaria), Abigail Burdess (Great-Britain), Vesselin Mezekliev (Bulgaria), Laurence Harvey (Great-Britain), Vladislav Petrov (Bulgaria) and Mariy Grigorov (Bulgaria)
Scenography Alexandre Smolianov
Costumes Ljudmila Tenekedjieva
Music Alexandre Andreevski (DJ No Good)
Lighting Jo Walker (Great-Britain), Simon Macer Wright (Bulgaria)
Project Manager Simon Plumridge
Producer Philippe Le Moine
Co-ordinators Vera Gotseva, Mariella Pentcheva
Starring
Mariana Krumova (Bulgaria), Abigail Burdess (Great-Britain), Vesselin Mezekliev (Bulgaria), Laurence Harvey (Great-Britain), Vladislav Petrov (Bulgaria) and Mariy Grigorov (Bulgaria)
Premiere: June 19, 2001 in the Gate theatre in London - East Goes West festival
Re-opening: June 3, 2002 for the International Theatre festival in Varna (Bulgaria)
Co-production art&scena (Sofia, Bulgaria), East Goes West festival and Gate Theatre (London, UK)
With the support of Visiting Arts, Bulgarian Embassy in London, National Theatre Centre (Bulgarian ministry of culture), Theorem (association supported by the Culture 2000 Programme of the European Union), Pro-Helvetia Bulgaria, British Council Sofia, fVarna estival (Bulgaria), Soros Sofia, Goethe Institut Sofia.
The Battle theatre performance was set as a long term Anglo-Bulgarian project co-produced by The Gate Theatre, The Art&Stage Theatre Group and East goes West festival.
The main aims were to gather freelance theatre professionals in a wider cross-cultural context; to produce a theatre performance based on the principles of direct exchange in creative practice; and not least to create a show exploring the theme of war and violence in the turmoil of the Balkans this being the central theme for the third year of the East goes West festival.
Heiner Müller portrays seven individual battles between the body and the mind, between bestiality and humanity, in the collapsing German society of 1945.
Would you eat your brother if your stomach was empty?
A Man emerges from a cloud of blood and war. Covered in wounds, he tries to stand proudly face to face with his own destiny. The Battle is inside him, between his Body and his Soul. Torn apart, he turns into an innocent and virgin killing-machine. In the end, rape is the price of freedom and a mongrel its result.
What remains in us of what came before us? A faded black-and-white photograph still stained with blood. Somehow our genes have retained the memory of the horrors of war.
"We want to explore and question the metaphors and signs that spring out of Müller's text. To achieve this we need to break away from conventional ways of directing and acting. Müller's text is both powerfully real and poetic. We want to achieve the most concise and precise stage language, in vital connection with the text.
I have always been interested in the psycho-physical 'costume' of the characters. I study the physical expression of the psychological act, the connection between the motive, the text and the physical expression of the actors.
We start from the memory of a war, frozen in a black-and-white photograph, witness of the characters' past history. We also start with some music, minimalist but significant, and parasitic noises. The lighting comes from slide-projectors, matches, torches and cigarettes."
Dimitar Nedkov
The main aims were to gather freelance theatre professionals in a wider cross-cultural context; to produce a theatre performance based on the principles of direct exchange in creative practice; and not least to create a show exploring the theme of war and violence in the turmoil of the Balkans this being the central theme for the third year of the East goes West festival.
Heiner Müller portrays seven individual battles between the body and the mind, between bestiality and humanity, in the collapsing German society of 1945.
Would you eat your brother if your stomach was empty?
A Man emerges from a cloud of blood and war. Covered in wounds, he tries to stand proudly face to face with his own destiny. The Battle is inside him, between his Body and his Soul. Torn apart, he turns into an innocent and virgin killing-machine. In the end, rape is the price of freedom and a mongrel its result.
What remains in us of what came before us? A faded black-and-white photograph still stained with blood. Somehow our genes have retained the memory of the horrors of war.
"We want to explore and question the metaphors and signs that spring out of Müller's text. To achieve this we need to break away from conventional ways of directing and acting. Müller's text is both powerfully real and poetic. We want to achieve the most concise and precise stage language, in vital connection with the text.
I have always been interested in the psycho-physical 'costume' of the characters. I study the physical expression of the psychological act, the connection between the motive, the text and the physical expression of the actors.
We start from the memory of a war, frozen in a black-and-white photograph, witness of the characters' past history. We also start with some music, minimalist but significant, and parasitic noises. The lighting comes from slide-projectors, matches, torches and cigarettes."
Dimitar Nedkov
