Once upon a time of zoom meetings, selfie broadcasting and snap-chat masks there was a country that had LGBTQ+ free zones: ‘zones free of queer ideology’ they called them in the country, but meant: zones free of queer people. The country was part of the EU. The zones were completely mundane and full of strange creatures. We went there. The rest is history.
Zoom seems like a bad thing. (Close but far, human but square, normal but exhausting....)
So we start from Zoom. And we feel awkward. Like it’s a substitute that we’re trying to make ours, to believe this is not just a sex doll. (Because it’s not)
We want to make it bearable. Not just bearable. Cozy. And nice.
Now, stay with us: maybe it’s a metaphor of Europe. Or the EU. The universal language of Europe has this awkward quality, like it’s a substitute. Focus on it not being virtual. The opposite of Matrix - there is a spoon. There is a spoon.
Dramaturgy: Sodja Zupanc Lotker
Set design and video: Wojciech Pustoła
Assistant director: Vera Popova
Co-devising: Sodja Lotker & Wojciech Pustoła
Soundtrack: Jan Sigsworth
Polish thanslation: Mateusz Rulski-Bożek
Consultation: Sean Palmer
Cast: Tenzin Kolsch, Claudia Korneev, Ewelina Pankowska, Adrian Pezdirc, Andjela Ramljak, Jan Sobolewski (European Ensemble)
Thanks to Hubert Centkowski, Serhiij Chupryn, Daniel Galosow, Linus Lewandowski, Jacek Szawioła i Przemysław Witkowski for permission to share their image and photos in performance.
Thanks to Bart Staszewski for sharing graphics „Poland. Map of LGBT-free zones”.
Premiere: 29.09.2020
online
ENG / polish subtitles
Play duration: 1 hour
European Ensemble
A coproduction of Schauspiel Stuttgart, the Nowy Teatr, Warsaw, and Zagreb Youth Theatre (zagrebačko kazalište mladih).
Funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation