11th April 2000 - The Theatre Times

El Virus De La Por (Virus of Fear)

Posted by Directed by Ventura Pons (2015), Spain | 11th Apr 2000 | IOTF 2020: Beyond The Stage

Unlike Masks and The Rest I Make Up, Ventura Pons’ Virus of Fear (2015) is not a documentary. It is, however, decidedly theatrical: based on the acclaimed play by Josep Maria Miró, Arquimedes’ Principle, the film follows a community grappling with the aftermath of an alleged sexual assault at a local swimming pool. Unwilling to take sides or to pontificate, Pons offers instead a challenging, bold examination of the contagious nature of terror and collective anxiety.

The Rest I Make Up

Posted by Directed by Michelle Memran (2018), USA | 11th Apr 2000 | IOTF 2020: Beyond The Stage

Michelle Memran’s The Rest I Make Up (2018) is a moving documentary about Cuban-American playwright and director Maria Irene Fornes. A pioneer in the New York City arts scene of the latter half of the 20th century, Fornes is a whirlwind of sharp wit and seemingly endless creativity. Her eventual struggle with Alzheimer’s, portrayed delicately by Memran, does little to slow her down. This is a remarkable portrait both of an intergenerational friendship and of a creative artist whose impact on American theatre has been acknowledged by writers as different as Edward Albee and Tony Kushner. This film plays from 15-29 April.

Màscares (Masks)

Posted by Directed by Elisabet Cabeza and Esteve Riambau (2009), Spain | 11th Apr 2000 | IOTF 2020: Beyond The Stage

In Masks (2009), Elisabet Cabeza and Esteve Riambau follow the acclaimed Spanish actor Josep Maria Pou as he prepares to play the part of Orson Welles. As spectators, we are allowed a rare glimpse into the performer’s creative process, observing how he shapes the character before, during, and following the rehearsal period.

Department of Dreams

Posted by Directed by Frédérique Michel, City Garage Theatre (2019), USA | 11th Apr 2000 | IOTF 2020

In this nightmarish, Orwellian comedy, an autocratic government demands its citizens deposit their dreams in a central bureaucratic depository so that it can exert the fullest possible control of their imaginations. Dan, a new hire for the prized job of Interpreter, sifts patiently through the nation’s dreams looking for threats to the government’s authority. but finds nothing is as it seems except the authority he serves. A key work from Kosovan playwright Jeton Naziraj is given a memorable production, first staged at LA’s City Garage in 2019.

The Rosenbergs

Posted by Directed by Dmitry Troyanovsky, based on an opera by Joachim Holbek and Rhea Leman, Boston Playwrights’ Theatre (2018), USA | 11th Apr 2000 | IOTF 2020

The North-American premiere of Joachim Holbek’s and Rhea Leman’s 2015 opera, The Rosenbergs presents a new lens for looking at the relationship of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, the US citizens convicted of spying for the Soviet Union. Drawing on their letters from prison in 1953, this moving exploration of the Rosenbergs’ personal and political commitment is intensely realised, with Christie Lee Gibson and Brian Church excelling as the doomed couple trying to navigate a difficult line between idealism and naivety. What would you be prepared to do for what you believe in? This is a production that allows The Rosenbergs a new trial, inviting the audience to come to its own conclusions about what moral responsibility means and how to exercise it.

Blue Bird

Posted by Directed by Boris Yukhananov, based on a play by Maurice Maeterlinck, Stanislavsky Electrotheatre, Stage Russia HD (2015), Russia | 11th Apr 2000 | IOTF 2020

The Blue Bird is a trilogy based, in part, on the play by Belgian symbolist Maurice Maeterlinck. Boris Yukhananov staged it as a journey into a fantastic, eccentrically structured world where experiments with the spectator’s imagination alternate with deep reflections on culture, time and theatre. The personal memories of veteran actors Vladimir Korenev and Aleftina Konstantinova – he in the role of the boy Tyltyl and she in the role of the girl Mytyl – emerge as vivid, documentary commentary on this mystical story about the search for Happiness. Each of the production’s parts has its own name – Journey, Night, and Bliss – its own structure, and artistic fabric. Each is stylistically diverse and absorbs the experience of world theatre culture in its own way.