WEISSE ELEFANTEN + NOSTALGIA UP & DOWN

In the organizer's words:

Censorship and repression before 1989 in the mirror of current developments

Two plays in one evening, an exhibition and "All Questions Open": 335 years after the end of the dictatorships in the GDR and the Socialist Republic of Romania, the Citizen.KANE.Kollektiv (Stuttgart) and Centrul Replika (Bucharest) examine repression and censorship before 1989. The strategy of allowing scenes in plays to obviously violate the rules in order to distract from other parts was referred to as the "white elephant". Whether this trap for censorship really existed has not been proven.

"White Elephants" is the title of the performance by the Citizen.KANE.Kollektiv. How can a theater group that is threatened by censorship circumvent it? What is the soundtrack of a resistant theater? Can art be dangerous? What contradictory theater images do we need to paint?

Under the title "Up & Down Nostalgia", three cultural experts explore relevant social and political events of the 1980s in a play by Centrul Replika. They find unexpected continuities between the communist era and today's realities. The experts dive deep into cultural paradoxes to paint over our nostalgia.

Censorship in the performing arts under totalitarian regimes had a great influence on the theater aesthetics of the 20th century. The two collectives ask themselves what unconscious patterns and hidden memories censorship and repression have left behind? What methods and tools can we take with us from past experiences against possible censorship in the future?

An exhibition and live interviews with contemporary witnesses accompany the performances of the double theater production.

Theater double bill:
19:00: Up & Down Nostalgia
21:00: White Elephants

As part of the 16th Congress of the Society for Theater Studies.

Team Citizen.KANE.Kollektiv: Gala Adam, Katharina Fast, Lisa Heinrici, Simon Kubat, Malin Lamparter, Ida Liliom, Christian Müller, Lena Stokoff, Maximilian Sprenger, Phil Wegerer, Nina Zinsmeister
Team Centrul Replika: Gabi Albu, Radu Apostol, Viorel Cojanu, Silvana Negrutiu, Mihaela Radescu

Supported by the European Union, the Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung, Fonds Darstellende Künste - Produktionsförderung, the Baden-Württemberg Stiftung, the Cultural Office of the City of Leipzig and the Cultural Office of the City of Stuttgart.
In cooperation with the Universitatea Națională de Artă Teatrală și Cinematografică "I.L. Caragiale", the University of Leipzig, Hellerau - European Center for the Arts, Schauspiel Stuttgart and Schaubühne Lindenfels.

Price information:

15 / 9 (reduced) Euro