2013 is the anniversary of the Battle of Leipzig in 1813. We will meet this anniversary of a European war event, with our project BATTLE OF NATIONS – a multinational battle text. Authors of different nationalities will meet in Leipzig to deliver productive battles by thinking of (fantasized) transnational societies – establishing a creative retreat, inspired by actors and in dialogue with audiences. In 2014, furthermore, the beginning of WW1 is commemorated. For the Campus in 2013, and the performances of the productions in 2014 under the title BATTLE OF NATIONS and BATTLE OF NATIONS – THE PIECES, both events form a contextual framework.
In collaboration with the architecture class of HTWK Leipzig we will build on one of the city’s open fields – the Millennium Field in Leipzig – a modular, changeable, temporary campus that will serve as a place of work and for meeting the public. At this central location of the project authors from different nations will work in teams and stages together with actors from the fringe ensemble during the spring of 2013. Referred to as a retreat venue this location will be accessible to the public for several hours every day.
A total of three teams, each consisting of three authors and 5-7 actors will live and work on the campus for five days, creating different characters and situations. The actors of the fringe ensemble will live/play the authors’ guidelines, inspiring them to update and change. In addition, the authors will develop and perform “text-battles” (battles), inspired by the events on campus, but also in dealing with the historical context and setting the theme of a (utopian) transnational society.
BATTLE OF NATIONS – BEFORE THE DOGS
A fringe ensemble and Schaubühne Lindenfels, Leipzig production, in cooperation with Theater im Ballsaal, Bonn and Theater im Pumpenhaus, Munster
By: Magdalena Barile, Ivo Briedis, Kristín Eiríksdóttir, Jens- Martin Eriksen, Goran Ferčec, Lothar Kittstein, Alexander Molchanov, Marie Nimier, Andreas Vonder
BEFORE THE DOGS – THEATRE FROM EUROPE, staged by fringe ensemble and the Schaubühne Lindenfels from March 1-8 2014, in Leipzig, developed during the course of the project VÖLKERSCHLACHTEN. BEFORE THE DOGS was also staged in Bonn in the Theater im Ballsaal, in Munster in the Theater im Pumpenhaus and in Cologne in studiobühneköln.
The materials and text elements acquired in the process of VÖLKERSCHLACHTEN are being adapted to the Theater. It will not be one original piece of text, but a multi-perspective piece of theater.
How can theater tell us of the wars and battle fronts of our days, without itself becoming an image machine within the media battle field?
BEFORE THE DOGS, follows the characters and stories of nine European authors along the front lines between war and no-war, man and beast, community and mob.
The setting is Europe , the time today.
The presence of war cannot be concealed.
What I’m doing here?
I’m diggin’.
I’m diggin’ myself a nice hole …
The front is coming ever closer . I tell you. I can smell it. It is a fine whiff of smoke and blood ,very fine. But the front is coming ever closer …
And I do not want others to have to dig.
And I do not want to be simply lying around somewhere. I want a nice, neat hole. And that’s not easy.
The earth is full of bones.
(Lothar Kittstein)
When man faces the beast he has created, then war has already begun. When its only about oneself not going to the dogs, not to be the last, the one they bite, then there’s war: financial wars, labor wars, terrorist actions, price wars, Playstation …
This is the true story of the dog, told by Himself the dog. The entire truth.
The dog that I am. And that’s my story.
Gilbert , the story of Gilbert in action …
( Marie Nimier)
Dogs and people will speak in VOR DEN HUNDEN – about their wars, but also about the smell of peace.
fringe ensemble/phoenix5 in cooperation with the Theater im Pumpenhaus, Munster and Theater im Ballsaal, Bonn. The author-theater-project BATTLE OF NATIONS is supported by Kulturstiftung des Bundes within the framework of the promotion Fonds Doppelpass.