18. 10. 2010.

PRESS CONFERENCE, 18th October

Today, the Czech team of theatre studio “Farm in the cave” came to talk about “Waiting Room”, performance which was played on the 16^th and 17^th october. The director Viliam Docolomansky, and the actors Eliska Vavrikova and Roman Horak answered the questions of Mess team and journalists.

 The troup first explained why their performance was not subtitled. As Viliam Docolomansky explains, they decided to speak focusing mainly on vibrations and straight transmission, creating a different relationship between audience and actors. The difference is not really visible but the thing is that they don’t try to show their performance, but to share it. Audience is lead to go through an experience of language that goes beyond limitation of the words.

 The team is then asked about the specific place they played in (stolarija narodnog pozorista). Roman Horak says that this venue was indeed very specific because of its industrial aspect. But he found the place very interesting in particular because of the balcony. Playing there was difficult because of the dust, conditions were harder as usual. They have already played in very specific venues as in Leipzig where there was oil on the floor.

Eliska Vavrikova adds that it is always interesting to perform in specific venues: for instance, sliding on the floor influences her, such places bring her inspiration, and help her getting adapted.

 The company is then asked if the topic they worked about is connected with the topic of their former performance, that wan an award in Mess festival two years ago. According to the director, what is common to these two performances is that they are based on a confrontation to some reality they experienced, and not on a literary reflexion.

 Waiting Room is based on their national shame and on their own memory. Question is how to reflect the fact that, 70 years ago, slovak citizens lost their jewish neighbours and did not react. The idea is to expose the topic of transportation but not in a social way, but deeper in the subconsciousness, building association between memory and future. What happened is recent, it happened at our grandfathers’time, and evil is still continuing.

 Viliam Docolomansky explains that the troup discovers its topics in a very special way, i.e. the topics discover them. They are working in a building and got interested in the history of it: they discovered that Jewish people had been transported from the waiting room of this building. They so began to lead interviews, to make research about this topic. According to the director, the most difficult has been to go inside himself and to accept that this dark slovak history was also his. It was painful for the team but they had to go through it. It is the task of artists to be related to such topics and to transmit it with their own language.

 Indeed, he realized that all their performances are about essential topics : first performance was about love, second one about home, Waiting Room about memory, and the new one is about freedom. As Kieslowski has his three colors, Viliam Docolomansky has his four colors.

 The last question is about the performance’s music. The director explains that they created music for the first time, even if it is a basic language for them. He himself participated in the elaboration of music with the sound designer. Music was inspired by jewish lamentation and slovak tango (1930’s). As they are preparing a film made after the performance “Waiting Room”, the soundtrack should be released soon.