Fri, Apr 05, 2002 - Page 9 News List

Small theater does big business

By Ian Bartholomew  /  STAFF REPORTER

The International Festival continues this week with its strong lineup of

local and foreign works of challenging contemporary performances. Response

has been excellent, so good in fact, that the double bill of the Odin

Teatret and Uhan Shii Theater Group this weekend has been completely sold

out. Limited performances and the small space of the experimental theater

has something to do with this, but for such bold excursions into the

avant-garde, the turnout has been gratifying to the festival organizers.

Given the scarcity of tickets, it is just as well to start thinking about

the upcoming weeks. The Odin and Uhan Shii will be two groups reworking

classics in distinctly contemporary style.

The Friday after next, Birute Mar will be performing three shows adapted

from Sophocles' Antigone. The story remains the same as in the classic, but

the presentation, incorporating large video installations to play the role

of the classical Greek chorus, definitely brings in a new type of visual

language. Mar's attraction is in the "avalanche of words" that are created

by the intense interior monologues of Greek tragedy that is almost akin to

music, but whose meaning extends beyond the aural. Shows will be held at

7:30pm on April 19 and 20, and at 2:30pm on April 20.

This will be followed the next week by the Sagliocco Ensemble presenting

Oscar Wilde's Salome. In this presentation, the play is created as a one

woman show in which Guandaline Sagliocco performs all the major roles,

exploring the ideas of sexuality and desire that led to such fateful

consequences. This work was created in 2000, the 100th anniversary of Oscar

Wilde's death. Salome will be performed at 7:30pm April 26-28 and 2:30pm

April 27.

All performances will be held at the Experimental Theater. Tickets are

available through the National Theater ticketing service. Call (02)

2343-1647 for more information.

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