HOW TO PEEL AN ONION WITHOUT CRYING
A visual theatrical essay on questions of human perception and the creation of what we call reality.
Concept and directed by: Pavel Štourač
Visual concept, stage design: Helena Štouračová and Pavel Štourač
Dramaturgy: Marek Turošík
Cast: Kateřina Šobáňová, Diana Khwaja, Ludmila Ješutová, Sean Henderson and Ivan Vanko
Music: Elia Moretti, Ridina Ahmedová, Petr Tichý, Jana Vondrů, Žaneta Vítová, Annabelle Plum, Hannes Giger and Jakub Štourač
Sound design: Jakub Štourač
Light design: Vojtěch Dvořák
Collaboration on the preparation of the performance: Barbora Ješutová
Movement collaboration: Tina Afiyan-Breiova, Anna Gromanová
Cooperation on the realization of the set design: Marcela Záchenská, Lucie Kronusová
Production: Petr Hromek
Production assistant: Martin Mikl
Booking: Nikola Križková
PR and media: Zuzana Bednarčiková
Premiere: Švestkový Dvůr / Plum Yard in Malovice, 13 May 2023
Length of performance: 60 min
ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE
How to sew a button?
How to get rid of the feeling of fainting?
How to lick your elbow?
We are thrust into a world we have inherited and do not understand. From birth to death, we try to understand it, or at least recognize and grasp it. At least we are not alone in this endeavour, and we have a lot of instructions and good advice that can help us understand who we are, what we are supposed to do and how we are supposed to survive, to ensure peace, safety and happiness. After all, it is enough to find recurring patterns in all this chaos, explain their causes, understand the consequences, systematize and classify everything.
How to keep a guinea pig happy?
How to do multiple things at once?
How to change your life in a matter of hours?
The Continuo Theatre’s production of HOW TO PEEL AN ONION WITHOUT CRYING is a continuation of the ensemble’s work, which explores the current phenomena of the contemporary world through theatrical work and combines the physicality and poetry of the material and the human body. The latest production is a visual theatrical essay on questions of human perception and the creation of what we call reality. In the production, the creative ensemble deals with, among other things, questions of how the human brain perceives the surrounding and inner world and how it creates a model from sensory stimuli and accepted cultural patterns, which it then calls reality.
How to do something for the first time?
How to stop a cat from doing what you don’t want?
How to survive a tsunami?
The production also reflects on the phenomenon of the human body, its position in contemporary culture and society, its instrumentalization and immortalization, as well as how the body becomes a product and a consumer at the same time through reductive thinking. In the new production, the body of the performer is understood as a sensor, an autonomous source of perception of reality, a litmus test of invisible impulses, and at the same time a communicator of all this through energy transformed in time and space into the solid physical structure of a theatrical performance. The essence of this approach is the effort of the creative team to find and articulate the non-intellectual answers of our body to the questions that our mind presents to us and at the same time cannot answer.
How to do anything?
How to write a play?
How to survive the apocalypse?
The visual concept is the work of Helena Štouračová and Pavel Štourač. The dramaturgy was handled by Marek Turošík, a long-time associate of the ensemble, and a number of musicians with whom the ensemble has been collaborating for a long time took part in the musical component. Jakub Štourač created the resulting musical dramaturgy and composition from musical compositions by Elia Moretti, Ridina Ahmedová, Petr Tichý, Jana Vondrů, Žaneta Vítová, Annabelle Plum and Hannes Giger.
GALLERY
PARTNERS
The production was supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, the State Culture Fund of the Czech Republic, the South Bohemia Region
