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Small theater does big business

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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