On the occasion of the special event for the 15th anniversary of ErosAntEros
Agata Tomšič confronts in her next production the German playwright who more than anyone else was able to take his baton and reinvent it through contemporary dramaturgical languages: Heiner Müller. Like Brecht, he claimed the exercise of critique and doubt, affirmed the space of imagination and utopia, but he did so by writing plays in which the dichotomy between mythos and logos never ceases to intersect, creating dialectical devices that advance by explosions, between thought forms as sharp as wounds and evasions of the unconscious that provoke nostalgia for a different condition of the world. A theater in which shock, dream, cruelty, and cry are tools through which to organize a flood of materials before which the audience is forced to make choices.
To choose to work on the materials he composed for the figure of Medea, means, however, also to face a myth of ancient origins: feminist, antipatriarchal, decolonial; still extremly powerful and eloquent in our present. Woman, mother, goddess, witch, lover, murderess, descendant of the Sun and granddaughter of the sorceress Circe. But also migrant, foreigner, barbarian, slave, refugee fleeing her own land, betrayed by the one man to whom she gave absolute loyalty and deprived by him of all rights.
Composed at different times between 1949 and 1982, Müller’s Medea unfolds in three parts:
– Despoiled Shore, based in Strausberg, where the last tank battle of World War II took place, headquarters of the DDR, “can be shown during the simultaneous operation of a peepshow”;
– Medea Material, “shorthand of a last-stage honorable dispute” based on Seneca, Euripide, Hans Henny Jahnn;
– Landscape with Argonauts, inspired by Wasteland and Ezra Pound, “presupposes the catastrophes, on which humanity is working”.
Tomšič continues her path of vocal-sound research, manipulating an extremely difficult, living, searing, radical textual material by connecting it with a refined audio-light-video composition. To do this she relies on the collaboration with Matevž Kolenc, composer, arranger and music producer, nominated for the 2024 Ubu Prizes along with the Slovenian cult band Laibach for the sound project of Saint Joan of the Stockyards.
A special spatial-sound dimension that embraces the audience and can inhabit even small settings. A barely visible scene, capable of inserting listeners inside a world that leaves room almost exclusively for the imaginative power of the sense of hearing.
text Heiner Müller
courtesy of Agenzia Danesi Tolnay
concept, direction, space Agata Tomšič / ErosAntEros
music and sound design Matevž Kolenc
with Agata Tomšič
costumes bàste sartoria
technical direction and set-up Vincenzo Scorza
scientific consultants Benedetta Bronzini, Anja Quickert, Daniela Sacco
production ErosAntEros
in residency at Artificerie Almagià POLIS Teatro Festival, Teatro di Dioniso Officina Anacoleti #ogniluogoèunteatro
with the support of Internationale Heiner Müller Gesellschaft
previews September 11th-12th, Teatro Fontana, Milano; September 23rd, Ogni luogo è un teatro, Vercelli; September 26th-27th, 15 years of ErosAntEros, Ravenna
debut October 12th 2025, Festival d’Autunno, Catanzaro
duration 60′
Agata Tomšič is an actress, dramaturg, director, artistic director and theorist. Co-founder in 2010 of ErosAntEros, within which she carries out vocal-sound research aimed at experimentation with different musicians and composers, such as Davide Sacco, Matevž Kolenc, Laibach, Bruno Dorella, Quartetto Noûs. Trained with various artists of the contemporary scene (Socìetas, Schaubühne, Odin Teatret, Motus, Eva-Maria Bertschy, Living Theatre, Teatro Valdoca, Fanny & Alexander, Anagoor, Francesca Della Monica), she received her Master’s Degree in Disciplines of Live Performance from the University of Bologna with prof. Marco De Marinis in 2014, continuing to publish her writings in books and journals (AkropolisLibri, “Culture Teatrali,” “Engramma”), translate and edit publications (Editoria & Spettacolo), organize and participate in international conferences. With ErosAntEros she produces multidisciplinary and politically engaged performances with major European theaters: Emilia Romagna Teatro ERT / Teatro Nazionale, Slovensko Mladinsko Gledalisce, TNL – Théâtre National du Luxembourg, Ravenna Festival, Campania Teatro Festival, Teatro della Toscana, TPE – Teatro Piemonte Europa, Teatro Stabile di Bolzano, Teatro della Tosse. Since 2018 she co-directs POLIS Teatro Festival in Ravenna, an international festival of contemporary theater with a particular focus on active audience participation and European programming. Since 2020 she has been an active member of EASTAP – European Association for the Studies of Theater and Performance (international conferences Sitges 2024, Aarhus 2023; Milan 2022; Bologna 2020). In 2023, she obtained a Second level Master’s Degree in Vocal Music Singing and 20th-century and contemporary music theater at the State Conservatory “Giuseppe Verdi” in Ravenna (among her teachers: Alda Caiello, Mauro Montalbetti, Marco Baliani, Marco Di Bari, Antonio Greco, Andrea Cappelleri). Establishing more and more also in the role of artistic and managerial direction, her presence intensifies within international projects and networks (FiraB! Balearic Islands’ Performing Arts Professional Market 2024; Festival d’Avignon 2023, 2022, 2018; Kosovo Theater Showcase 2022; Pika2025 European Capital of Culture 2019-2020).
Matevž Kolenc, music composer, arranger and producer, began his career with the band Melodrom, releasing four albums between 2004 and 2010. Since 2012 he is a member of Laibach, scoring music for albums such as Spectre (2014), Also sprach Zarathustra (2017), and Wir sind das Volk (2022) all released by Mute records. Kolenc focuses also on theater and film scoring, notably composing music for Laibach in the theater piece Saint Joan of the Stockyards (2024) directed by Davide Sacco and Agata Tomšič / ErosAntEros, nominated for Ubu Award 2024 for Best Original Theater Sound/Music. His film work includes scoring Newsreel 63, Slovenia’s entry at the 2016 Venice Biennale, and subsequent films by Nika Autor, with Newsreel 242 competing at IDFA in 2023. He also experiments with sound design, binaural recording, and multimedia arts, including collaborations with visual artist Michael Saup and releases such as his solo EP Particles and the debut EP of his project Kreda, featuring Alastair McNeill, songwriter and producer, and Mina Špiler, singer/musical artist.