FESTIVALS-CZECH/BEHIND THE DOOR Street performers entertain Prague at international theatre festival

Record ID: 146602

  • Title: FESTIVALS-CZECH/BEHIND THE DOOR Street performers entertain Prague at international theatre festival
  • Date: 17th July 2015
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Czech) PASSER-BY, MIROSLAV NEBESKY, SAYING: "This kind of theatre belongs to the street. It entertains people, tourists." (SOUNDBITE) (Czech) PASSER-BY, LUCIE NOVAKOVA, SAYING "It is surprising what it is possible to do with the rope, what kind of things it can be transformed into." PEOPLE CLAPPING (SOUNDBITE) (English) PERFORMER, STEPHANIE N'DUHIRAHE, SAYING
  • Embargoed: 1st August 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Czech Republic
  • Country: Czech Republic
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA16BS73EUE3JB1L61SLCCD2ZF6
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Dozens of street performers, theatre ensembles, musicians and dancers took to the streets of Prague this week for the seventh edition of international street theatre festival "Behind the Door".
    Locals and tourists gathered in the Czech capital's Wenceslas Square were treated to a performance by Polish ensemble "Musicians", made up of composer and musician Piotr Lipansky and performer, writer and director Jacek Zwonowski.
    The pair have been working together for over 15 years on various visual arts projects including collaborations with Polish national theatres. Between them they have performed in 25 countries.
    For the Prague festival, they showcased "Tank" - a 1970s-style romp about two men on a caravanning holiday, perfectly content with their barbecue and jolly music until they run out of beer. The innovative pair decide to go about brewing their own - with a little help from the audience.
    "We are very much inspired by Pat and Mat," Lipansky said, referring to a popular television series featuring two rather inept handymen.
    "We know this is a Slovak tale and not Czech, but we like it very much. The story is about two Polish tourists trying to make their own beer and when they don't succeed, they ask the public and with these Prague people they are brewing their 'real' beer," Lipansky added.
    Unfortunately for the thirsty audience members, their reward was not actually real beer -- the performance used coloured water to give the illusion of a brewing success. Nevertheless, spirits were still running high by the end as the audience helpers joined the performers in a celebratory dance.
    The festival gives a platform to a wide variety of acts, ranging from comic theatre troops to circus performers such as the "Compagnie des pieds perches", an emerging circus company performing in Switzerland, France and Czech Republic.
    Founding members Stephanie N'Duhirahe and Morgan Widmer wowed audiences with their absorbing rope-dancing high above the street.
    Life-long friends who discovered circus arts in Switzerland, the two set up their own company after graduating from circus schools in Geneva and Canada respectively.
    At Behind the Door, they gave a performance of their very first show, "Foutaise" ("Silly Nonsense"). It features two young women becoming entangled in "a world made of ropes that can be both playful and restrictive," according to the company's website.
    "It's a story of two girls, they play with ropes, they fight each other…," N'Duhirahe explained.
    "They play together and they fight each other and they have to go to work sometimes and at the beginning they like but at the end they don't like to go. They prefer to play, so that is the story," Widmer added.
    The "Behind the Door" festival runs through to July 17.
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