SIX BILLION SUNS
Six Billion Suns was one of The Guardian's Hot Picks for The Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2014!
"Gran, don't enter the dark with that Alzheimer!"
Experimental theatre project about the fading away of our personal universe. Inspired by Alzheimer´s Disease.
You probably experience this too when you forget what you had for lunch yesterday, or where you´ve put your keys, or where you were on holidays five years ago. Can you imagine though that you forget the name of your daughter? Of your husband? Or that you get lost within reach of your front door where you´ve been coming to every day for dinner? You consider it impossible for you to look at your watch and be unable to answer the question: what´s the time? You think it´s a load of rubbish for you to desperately attempt to reach the police by calling them using your TV remote control because your son has turned up for supper and you think he´s a burglar? And when you look at yourself in the mirror that wrinkled face reminds you terribly of your grandmother, but it´s not you, definitely not, I mean, you haven´t even reached thirty…
If we can imagine our future only thanks to us being aware of our past, what happens when start to forget…?
You will laugh and then cry, cry and laugh, laugh and cry until you reach the stage when you´re unsure whether to laugh or cry.
You can watch our teaser HERE.
Director: Eva Rysová
Script and Dramaturgy: Ondřej Novotný
Music: Paweł Passini, Daniel Moński
Stage Design and Costumes: Anna Solilová
Producer: Eva Dryjová
Cast: Marie Jansová, Paulína Labudová, Jiří Kniha, Václav Marhold, Ondřej Novotný, Viera Pavlíková
THEY HAVE WRITTEN ABOUT US:
„The last time I saw something as powerful and well-produced was by TEATR NOVOGO FRONTA (Fugue of Time), but never as a regular play. I won´t bother describing it, it wouldn´t be worth it – you have to see and experience it. I recommend it hundred times over!!!“
Jan Široký, member of the audience
„In the first minutes the audience is gradually transported into another world, a world of people suffering from this disease. Thanks to this opportunity I realised how difficult it is to live with a memory disorder, how folk with this illness live with us in our ´real´ world – but are unable to share much of it with us. The actors express their experience of being depressed, of being helpless, in an original way, spontaneously and humanely at a time when the world around them tackles them with ´sneaky´ questions…
Young actors expressed experiences as well as fragmentary situations and problematic moments of everyday life of people with Alzheimer´s disease in an authentic manner with everything taking place in ´another´ world as portrayed by superb acting perfomances and, to boot, an unusual form of theatre environment and alternative music.
To be able to see a theatre performance of ´Six Billion Suns´ ensures an extraordinary experience whose impact will stay with the audience for some days..“
Eva Jarolímová, psychologist specialised in Alzheimer Disease
„I, as well as others, was greatly taken by this performance. I really appreciate how much work and theatrical imagination flows from this production.“
Kristýna Cihlářová, theatre manager
„I spoke to a woman friend of mine, a fellow sufferer of Alzheimer´s Disease, for about half-an-hour today about last night´s performance. She was ecstatic. She saw herself in many situations and said she laughed a great deal. Us, demented folk, probably see it a little differently to other people. I suppose we simply get immersed in the characters as if we were there with them. We don´t mull over the elements of sadness....
On behalf of us all, thank you for the production where you stand up for us – you are helping other people to comprehend us a little more.“
„It´s a pity that only a small number of people will see this production. My friend asked whether it would not be possible to film it and enable many more people to see it on the screen“
Nina Baláčková, patient-sufferer of Alzheimer´s Disease
Existential waltz: „The authors openly confess that they got absorbed by the issue of a vicious disease that destroys the mind and communication ties. They didn‘t stage some outward story, literature, Shakespear or drama, no matter how interesting, provocative or instructive. Rather, they’ve tried to formulate and stage an attitude to life in opposition to pretentious theatrical schemes and manipulations (aesthetical or other). This attitude bears the name: humility. ... One feels that both the authors and the actors believe in the meaningfulness of their pursuit, that they are seeking answers to questions that touch them deeply and personally. ... This elementary, lived empathy gives the authors creative energy and the ability to apply the notoriously known theatrical measures and stereotypes in a functional and especially moderate way. The popular comical motiv of a 'word-forgetting idiot' is not abused for cynical fun, but instead it is used moderately to lighten up the mood in an air of black humor.”
Fantišek Dryje, reviewer, Tvar – The Literature Periodical, 19.3.2014