The play "The Revenge
of the Crystal" had it's premier in Junge Hunde festival
in Kanonhallen København 2002 and was very well received
by the public.
It's a fascinating duo for performer
and a hypernaturalistic life-size puppet, which is exploring
the core of theatrical illusion and the fenomenological framework
of spacetime in search of a absolute ritualistic theatre.
By using the aesthetics we try to seduce the public into the
more subliminal genres.
The storyline is built on the
myth of Pygmalion in Metamorphosis by Ovid, but is here rearranged
as a tragedy, conducted by a minimalistic prose text. The
text spoken in english is mounted in the soundscore. As in
the ritualistic tragedy, we will here follow the death of
at least one of the performers!
What is maybe more fascinating
is the space for experience this play will leave with the
audience. The puppet which is made from a hypernaturalistic
mannequins head, which represents last years absolutely female
western ideal, is of course a dead objeckt. But as soon as
the public has realized the life of the puppet, they wont
forget her tender breathing and the imposing of life, even
as she is left by herself on stage, while the performer collects
his deathmask for a highly ritualistic purpose.
The music is a new composition
made by Peter Kyed, who is known for his score in the play
"Salomé" conducted by the danish performance
troupe Von Heiduck (Awarded with Mouson Turm Performance Award
1999 Frankfurt). You will find excerpts from Górecki
and Carl Davis among the pieces of the complete soundscape
wich is arranged with the prose text as well.
Svend E Kristensen is schooled
in western performance tradition's mainly through his long
collaboration with the the danish groups Exment (Peepshows)
and Von Heiduck (Angest, Solo Schön; the Metalswine,
Salomé, Extropia, Peepshow 3+4) and other works. This
is his first soloperformance which is made after his studies
with japanese puppet- and maskmaster Hoichi Okamoto and his
Dondoro theatre, which we as well will continue our work with
already in this Sept. where we have invited him to play on
to occasions in Copenhagen and also performing a workshop
which could be of your interests?.
For your information:
1. We are normally 2 or 3 persons on tour, including technicians
and performer.
2. Sound equipment is minimalized to one cd player and a normal
theatrical sound system with speakers on stage.
3. We normally work a great deal with the light (Light-design
is made by Carsten Petersen, Kanonhallen Kbh.).
4. Video can be obtained from the middle of April 2002.
5. The play has a duration of 35 min.
6. Audience is set to a maximum of 200.
7. The play is from 12 years and up.
8. We normally play in a black box theatre. Normal hight for
theatrical lights, stage size is around 10 times 10 meters.
We have good experiences in playing in other environment.
- The "Revenge of the Crystal"
is chosen to represent Denmark in ASEF's
puppettheatre festival in Bangkok, July of this year which
is among 25 countries from Asia and Europe.
The play is supported
by Scandinavian-japan Sasakawa Foundation, Statens Teaterråd,
Statens Kunstfond, Hindsgaul Mannequins, Dansk skuespiller
forbund, T.T.T. International Performance Institute Kyoto