Ufftenživot & Studio ALTA

Studio ALTA / czech / 90 min

Am I a man? What am I allowed to do? What am I not allowed to do? What am I supposed to do? Who will tell me? What part of me can be revealed? Can I feel my inner feelings on the outside? “We examine the stereotypes, norms and expectations that we have learned, accepted from others, created, automated, and now trying to peel off. We search for possible ways of staging this process of ‚peeling off‘. We search for means of communicating without imposing our views, while expressing our feelings. We live in a world we have created ourselves. We are responsible for it. On the stage, we conceive a world where all wo/men can be seen as they are, with their emotions.” Jiří Šimek, Peter Šavel a Marta Ljubková We started out by reading Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez, followed soon afterwards by The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love by bell hooks. For two years we have explored various topical issues that have emerged since the outbreak of Covid-19: the structuring of the world with regard to those who are ‚smaller and weaker‘, contemporary communication and its methods, the ideal of a man, the world as a place suiting only some of us, and emotional maturity… The production has evolved throughout the process as more and more inspirations popped up, such as power-abuse cases at universities and harassment scandals. What remained was the original title and the desire to find a form that best expresses what is often kept quiet because it is considered embarrassing. About the fragility that even men have a right to feel – but they are a minority in the theatre audience. (So if you’re not a man and you’ve read this far, think about which man in your life could use a little fragility and take him to the theatre with you!) We are experimenting with the limits of what we can say in theatre and how, and what the notion “theatre” encompasses. We are not tied by genre, formal or expressive boundaries; we understand the theatrical form as a free territory where everything is possible. Even cry with impunity. A map and a record of the whole creative process is available at the project’s website www.neviditelnazena.cz (only in CZ and SK)

Performers: Jiří Šimek, Peter Šavel
Dramatugical ana Creative Collaboration: Marta Ljubková
Technical Support and Lighting Design: Štěpán Hejzlar, Zuzana Režná
Production: Tereza Tomášová, Ludmila Vacková a Jiří Šimek
Producers: Studio ALTA, Ufftenživot
Co- production: Moving Station (Johan z.ú)
Art Residencies: Velvarská kostka, Rezi.dance v lese, Sprang Scene (Norsko / Norway), Baerum Kulturhus (Sandvika – Norsko / Norway), Studio ALTA , Moving Station

More info: HERE

Photo by: Vít Štaif

Tickets HERE

Supported by: hlavní město Praha, MKČR
WHOMAN is part of the project ‚Cooperation of Cultural Houses: Studio ALTA, Baerum Kulturhus, Black Box Theatre supported from the EEA grants.