The average person today lives for 72 years - a period of time in which many things fit: Growing up, dreams, love, suffering and getting old. Individual biographies in a collective history that inevitably shapes individual lives.
Trees grow older than humans, up to several thousand years. Their life is deposited in annual rings, countable only after their death, for which man is often responsible. Where do our annual rings lie?
long life reflects the duration, events and traces of a long human life with all its experience and maturity, disillusionment and bitterness, tiredness and mildness, but also with the stubborn longing for a better world. The 74-year-old actress, dancer and founder of the Toihaus Theatre Salzburg Myrtó Dimitriádou once more gets back to stage in this journey of memory through a long life. She is joined by Cat Jimenez as a carefree and life-hungry young woman. Her strength and grace make her a bearer of hope and an extended arm into the future for a long life that is coming to an end.
Designed long before the outbreak of the corona virus, the project is clearly marked by the conditions of the lockdown, which surprised the team before rehearsals began. Even before the two protagonists met in person for the first time, they met online and rehearsed with director and choreographer Editta Braun via ZOOM on the screen. The pandemic had a noticeable impact on aesthetics and the course course of rehearsals - as a restriction, challenge and opportunity at the same time.
Suitable for intimate venues: «long life» proves to be a piece for intimate spaces to create intimacy between audience and performers. However, essential requirements are: black and flat back drop, white dance floor, performing area min. 9mx9m, darkness and silence, audience frontal and a good PA.
Myrto Dimitriadou
* 1946 in Greece, dancer and actress, lives and works in Salzburg. Until 2018 she was artistic director of the Toihaus Theater Salzburg, which she founded in 1984. Until the time of its foundation she had numerous engagements as an actress, director and lecturer in Austria and Germany, developed theatre projects, dance and music performances. Dance, music and movement are essential for her artistic work. In Toihaus Theater she developed her own theatrical direction - both thematically and aesthetically. A pictorial combination of dance, music, language and movement distinguishes her numerous performances and productions, which have been invited to international festivals and have received numerous awards. In 2006 she was awarded the Silver Seal of the City of Salzburg for her artistic merits. In October 2014 Myrto Dimitriadou was awarded the special prize of the board of directors of ASSITEJ Austria for her many years of outstanding cultural-political and artistic achievements in the field of performing arts for young audiences.
Cat Jimenez
* 1986 as Paz Katrina Jimenez in Cebu City in the Philippines, moved with her family at the age of four to Vienna, where she still lives today. With her background in visual arts and street dance, her work moves between the expressive richness of hip hop culture and the minimalist aesthetics of contemporary art. Since 2015 Cat Jimenez is mainly active in theatre. She has worked with Hungry Sharks, Cie. Gervasi, Studio Nita, Dschungel Wien and performed at festivals like Sound:Frame, Donaufestival, Danza Bolzano. https://whadupcat.tumblr.com
Thierry Zaboitzeff - composition
* 1953 in Northern France, co-founder, composer and style-defining protagonist of the avant-garde rock formation ART ZOYD, world tours. FSince 1995 solo and group-formation projects. Freelance composer and musician for film, dance, theater, events. Release of 52 albums, 19 of them with Art Zoyd albums. www.zaboitzeff.org
Editta Braun - artistic direction
* 1958 in Austria, pioneer of contemporary choreography in Austria. Academic degree in Science of Sports and German Language and Literature (University of Salzburg). Studied dance in Paris and New York, teaches at the University of Salzburg and at the Anton Bruckner Private University Linz. Has created more than 30 productions (physical theater, dance) and tours world-wide with her company. Characteristics: intercultural collaborations, politically engaged, feminist view on society and theater. International Prize of Arts and Culture of the City of Salzburg in 2014, Great Prize of Arts of the Region of Salzburg 2017.
«long life»
Stream-Premiere
8 May at https://szene-salzburg.net
Live-Premiere at SZENE Salzburg
29 + 30 June
artistic direction, choreography, scenography, visuals: Editta Braun
dance, acting, choreography:
Myrtó Dimitriádou, Cat Jimenez
composition, arrangement covers: Thierry Zaboitzeff
covers: "Enjoy The Silence" by Martin Gore/Depeche Mode and "Venus" by Robbie Van Leeuwen / Shocking Blue, vocals Sandrine Rohrmoser
light design: Thomas Hinterberger
dramaturgy: Gerda Poschmann-Reichenau
texts: e b c & Josef Wittmann
photography: Bettina Frenzel
technical assistence: Benedikt Gassner
management: Antje Papke
inspired by
Peter Wohlleben: Das geheime Leben der Bäume, München 2019 and
Richard Powers: The Overstory, New York 2018
long life
,
Photos: Bettina Frenzel
PRESS REACTIONS TO THE THEATRE PREMIERE
"The production declines life itself. (...) The approach is made exciting by the two protagonists, Cat Jimenez, born in 1986, and Myrtó Dimitriádou, born in 1947. (...) Once again, the music by Thierry Zaboitzeff has a special impact on the production and rounds it off into a coherent whole." (Heidemarie Klabacher, DrehPunktKultur, 28.06.2021)
"In the premiere it was fascinating, among other things, how the acting virtuosity of the former Toihaus-principal Myrtó Dimitriádou meets the elastic body language of Cat Jimenez, how each in her own way and yet both dance together."
(Hedwig Kainberger, SN 02.07.2021)
"In her piece "long life" Editta Braun leaves a lot of space (...) for interpretation, for fantasy and for the creation of own stories. (...) She connects the lifes of two women via crossroads where fates intersect and then immediately separate again. (...) The tree as a metaphor for timelessness that is taken up again and again and as a cross-generational point of orientation symbolises precisely these intersections between old and young, between the two women in particular and the flow of life in general." (...) "Once again Editta Braun has succeeded in creating a highly original and independent work. (...) One can thank her for the undiscovered."
("The White Room", mw, Art Box Review on https://www.kunstbox.at)
