Back to Back Theatre
GANESH VERSUS THE THIRD REICH
novembernov 17 – 21
© Jeff Busby ©
© Jeff Busby ©
RER : Cité Universitaire (RER B)
Tramway : Cité Universitaire (T3)
Tuesday november 17
20h
Wednesday november 18
20h
Thursday november 19
19h
Friday november 20
20h
Saturday november 21
18h
Conception Mark Deans, Marcia Ferguson, Bruce Gladwin, Nicki Holland, Simon Laherty, Sarah Mainwaring, Scott Price, Kate Sulan, Brian Tilley and David Woods. Direction, concept and design Bruce Gladwin. With Simon Laherty, Scott Price, Brian Tilley and (to be announced). Additional performance Georgina Naidu. Lighting design Andrew Livingston and Bluebottle. Set design and construction Mark Cuthbertson. Design and animation Rhian Hinkley. Composition Jóhann Jóhannsson. Mask design and construction Sam Jinks and Paul Smits. Translation Karen Witthuhn and Greg Bailey. Script consultant Melissa Reeves. Additional on-screen performance Georgina Naidu. Costume design Shio Otani. Creative development of the performers Brian Lipson, James Saunders and Sonia Teuben. Sound operation Byron Scullin.
General management Alana Hoggart. Production director Bao Ngouansavanh. Company manager Erin Watson. Touring David Miller. Executive producer Tanya Bennett.
Developed with the support of Creative Victoria and funding from the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its advisory body for arts funding; the City of Melbourne; the Sidney Myer Fund and the Keir Foundation; the 2009 Kit Denton Fellowship; the National Theatre Studio (London); the Geelong Performing Arts Centre; and the Goethe-Institut (Melbourne)
Back to Back Theatre is supported by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body; the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria; the City of Geelong; and the Anthony Costa Foundation
With the support of the Australian Embassy in France
The Théâtre de la Cité internationale, Théâtre de la Ville-Paris and the Festival d’Automne à Paris present this performance in corealisation.
With the support of
GANESH VERSUS THE THIRD REICH, a fable of a droll and moving kind, interweaves two narratives in order to prompt us to examine our perceptions of theatre and handicap. In it, the elephant-headed god travels through Nazi Germany, while the performers ask themselves questions about the pertinence of telling this story.
Amidst a sumptuous set design, in which texts, silhouettes and landscapes are projected onto plastic curtains, Ganesh travels though Germany at the time of the Third Reich in order to reclaim the Swastika, an ancient Hindu symbol now taken over by Hitler’s regime. As the divinity embarks on its journey, a second narrative is revealed: the performers themselves begin to feel the weighty responsibility of storytellers and question their legitimacy to embody this story. In doing so, they bring up the issue of cultural appropriation. Four of them are neurodivergent but not the fifth one, who takes on the role of the overbearing, tyrannical director. The show takes shape before the audience’s very eyes, and springs into life in total disregard for the frontiers between fiction and the real. Vibrant, funny and poignant, GANESH VERSUS THE THIRD REICH, first performed in 2011, invites us to ask questions about who has the right to tell a story and who has the right to be heard.
See also
In the same place
RER : Cité Universitaire (RER B)
Tramway : Cité Universitaire (T3)