Author: francesca

Here the final video of POLIS 2024.

Thanks again to all the people who were with us for this seventh edition of the festival.

Enjoy your viewing!

Author: francesca

Truth as a weapon
Maria Leskova, May 18th 2024

Contribution created as part of the workshop OBSERVING THE CATASTROPHE, led by Tom Mustroph during POLIS 2024, thanks to the collaboration with Dipartimento di Beni Culturali dell’Università di Bologna and in particular with the Master’s program in International Cooperation on Human Rights and Intercultural Heritage.

“Coincidence of chance and luck brought me to POLIS Teatro Festival in Ravenna on Friday night (10/05/2024). Just another proof that coincidences do not exist as what I saw captured my mind and spirit.

ErosAntEros’ 45-minute performance is based on an essay by Bertolt Brecht written back in 1934. Almost a century had passed, however its meanings are still worth revisiting. History repeats itself, or as one famous historian put it “history is not a teacher but a supervisor – it does not teach, but does punish severely for not learning the lessons”. [история не учительница, а надзирательница, она ничему не учит, но строго наказывает за невыученные уроки]

It was a one actress performance, where Agata Tomsic seemed like as if she was leading the audience to the truth by hand, but at the same time staying a mere narrator. Her deep voice went into extremes from being nice & soft to almost singing & screaming with a Joker-like smile. Her background, lights and music at times felt irritating or disturbing, giving an uncomfortable vibe of a dark techno rave. It made me note that, if ‘comfort zone’ or ‘daily life’ inside propaganda and capitalism shall sound like a fake harmony, then the search and battle for the truth ‘against the system’ shall definitely sound and feel as scary and unpleasant as the scenery was at some points.

Coming from a foreign theatre culture, I appreciated this performance for the taste of completeness – the actress, the music, the background, the darkness, the lights – all of its elements acted as one to my eye. As one famous director might have said, I believed it.

Photos by Michele Lapini projected on the background resonated with the performed essay, in a way persuading the audience to think critically of the ‘paradise’ within ‘democratic–capitalistic’ world. Truth-seeking process described in the text can not only be attributed to Germany in late 1930s, but shall be continued today and tomorrow. Therefore, images were transmitting their own silent message, opening the dirty ‘other side’ of Italian dolce vita. While someone peacefully drinks their espresso, someone has to fight for their truth on the same streets.

Watching the performance, I was fascinated by all the levels of meanings it has to offer. I found myself crying several times and I was grateful to this performance for leading me to reflect on what I am currently going through [as someone who seeks the truth and ways to tell it] and what my country is going through [as a place of thriving propaganda and oppression].

Before certain events, when civil society still had its quiet voice and could have still been seen in action on the streets, people used to call protests “walks” and used to invite each other “for a walk” on specific squares of their cities on certain days. It was always inspiring and painful to see thousands of people gathering to silently walk down the same streets in small groups – visually divided, but connected by common political dreams. Everyone knew why they came to those places while faking that it was not a conscious choice as they were “just walking”. Silence and peacefulness of this action was always surrounded by troops of “cosmonauts” and metal fences. Once in a while chant could have been heard somewhere in the crowd, which only attracted “cosmonauts” making people wonder if the voice will be arrested or not.

One of the messages of the performed old writing was that knowledge is power and truth is a weapon that needs courage and intelligence to be told. Year by year there are more and more legal constrains making citizens of my country to plunge into silence faking that they are “not interested in politics” while propaganda is brainwashing. A great deal of precedents has occurred with people being prosecuted for exercising arts, doing science, journalism, activism, humor or ‘vandalizing’ walls with street art. None is safe until silent, when even a reposted meme can be used against you.

If knowledge is power, I egoistically consider myself overeducated and I cannot erase my memory or unsee things that I see at home. Sometimes I cry reading about certain events from the history of my country. What frightens me the most is her present. This fear and all of my knowledge are what makes me move forward in search for the truth and channels to communicate it.

When I was a kid, they used to make a joke saying “if you’ll know too much, you’ll be upset”. [будешь много знать, расстроишься]

I am already upset and I have no way back.”

Author: francesca

THIS IS WHERE HISTORY IS MADE
Anna Bandettini in her newsletter “Post Teatro – La Repubblica”, May 3rd 2024

“The other festival is POLIS, a small miracle: born in Ravenna in 2018 with a daring and corsair spirit, it has grown very fast in its non-trivial focus on independent artists and companies and in the international relations it puts in place, this year with a focus on contemporary theater from the German speaking area, inspired in part by the recent staging of Bertolt Brecht’s St. Joan of the Stockyards by the ErosAntEros collective i.e. Davide Sacco and Agata Tomsic, the festival’s organizing tandem. […]”

Author: francesca

POLIS Teatro Festival on air on Radio Popolare within the program CULT, curated by Ira Rubini.

PODCAST to listen the presentation of the festival by Agata Tomšič. From min. 21 and 12 sec.

Author: francesca

On April 22nd at 12 pm, at Artificerie Almagià, was held the POLIS 2024 press conference.

.

Author: francesca

On Monday, April 8th the tickets for POLIS Teatro Festival 2024 will be available!

For the performance Saint Joan of the Stockyards on April 24th
TEATRO ALIGHIERI
via Mariani 2, Ravenna
tel. +39 0544 249244 / tickets@teatroalighieri.org
open Monday through Saturday 10 am -1 pm, Thursday also 4-6 pm
online at www.teatroalighieri.org/events/santa-giovanna-dei-macelli
IAT Ravenna, Piazza San Francesco 7, tel. 0544 482838
IAT Teodorico, via delle Industrie 14, tel. 0544 451539
IAT Cervia, via Evangelisti 4, tel. 0544 974400

For all the performances in program between May 7th-12th
TEATRO RASI
via di Roma 39, Ravenna
open Thursday afternoon from 4 to 6 pm (April 11th, April 18th, May 2nd)
starting from one hour before each performance in the venue of the performance
online at https://www.vivaticket.com/it/tour/polis-teatro-festival-2024/2996 (commission 10%)

Due to the reduced capacity of the itinerant performance, of Artificerie Almagià and of the Ridotto of Teatro Rasi, pre-sale purchase is recommended

Author: francesca

POLIS Teatro Festival is back: in 2024 it reaches its seventh edition putting a German Focus at the center!

Where? In Ravenna.

When? Form May 7th to May 12th with an extraordinary prologue on April 24th.

With Rimini Protokoll, Mats Staub, She She Pop, ErosAntEros, Barletti/Waas, Le_cerbottane, Caterina Marino and more!

The program is already online.

Thanks to Alessandro Tedde and Antropotopia for the video!

Author: francesca

From February 1st, the 2024 Art Bonus Competition kicks off, in which POLIS Teatro Festival is also participating, specifically with the 2022 edition, which opened the doors to the festival’s new international format.

To vote, just go to the website: https://artbonus.gov.it/concorso/2024/

There is time until March 1st.

Author: francesca

Tickets for the April 24th 2024 date of Saint Joan of the Stockyards at Teatro Alighieri in Ravenna are available for purchase from February 1st 2024.

The date, in collaboration with La Stagione dei Teatri, is the extraordinary prologue to the 7th edition of POLIS Teatro Festival and is the only must-see replica in Ravenna, following the April 18-21 debut at Teatro Arena del Sole in Bologna.

BOX OFFICE: Teatro Alighieri via Mariani 2, Ravenna +39 0544 249244 / tickets@teatroalighieri.org open Monday through Saturday 10 am -1 pm, Thursday also 4-6 pm online at www.teatroalighieri.org/events/santa-giovanna-dei-macelli

TICKETS:
Supporter 25€ | Full price 20€ | Under30 5€

Author: francesca

POLIS Teatro Festival returns on May 7-12, 2024 in Ravenna’s main cultural venues (Teatro Rasi, Artificerie Almagià, Teatro Socjale), with an extraordinary prologue on April 24, 2024 at Teatro Alighieri in collaboration with La Stagione dei Teatri.

At the center of the festival there is a German Focus with international guests, young artists, meetings and participatory projects.

The program will be announced in March 2024.

SAVE THE DATE!

Author: francesca

How it’s done in Ravenna
Magda Piekarska, “Teatralny”, January 17th 2024
https://teatralny.pl/rozmowy/jak-to-sie-robi-w-rawennie,3857.html

Magda Piekarska: POLIS, or city-state, or, more properly, a social community. Is this the idea of your festival, you want to build a community around theater?  

Agata Tomšič: Our festival exists since 2018, we named it POLIS because one of our goals was to activate the local community. We try to do this through audience development and participation, which involves the audience not so much in the creative process, but in conscious reception. We offer our audiences performances that reflect their present, but also offer the possibility of transformation, if only we use imagination as a tool. This is what we try to do as artists – we use theater as a mirror of reality, we use imagination to create visions of a different, better world. We do this through the language of contemporary theater. The productions we host at our festival have been combining these qualities with formal research from the very beginning. At the beginning there were Italian productions, but in 2022 we opened the program to the European contemporary theater scene, which made the festival change to an international format.

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