The scenic composition is based on field research the Farm in the Cave did in villages of eastern Slovakia, on old Ruthenian and Ukrainian songs, on letters of Slovak emigrants, and on the story of Karel Čapek ’s Hordubal.

Abstract


After several years, an anonymous gastarbeiter returns from America to his village in Slovakia. His place is taken. The emigrant´s effort to fit in the imagined gap back „here“ fuse with his memories of attempts to participate in the community „over there“. The rupture in the inability to be fully there where he is, and „bare life“ as the emigrant experiences it does not mean only life without any social rights and identity, reduced to material needs, but mainly life without soul, without any network of relationships.

„Farm in the Cave has managed to create conditions which theater historians always speak about with nostalgia - reminiscent of antique theater, Grotowsky’s theater, theater of all times and societies to whom has been granted a unity of professed values shared on both sides of the ramp…“ Malgorzata Jabloňska, Didaskalia 67/68
 
Performed by: Ivan Jurečka / Robert Nižník, Jun Wan Kim, Cecile da Costa, Hana Varadzinová, Roman Horák, Eliška Vavříková, Anna Gromanová, David Jánský, William Valerián
 
Duration: 55 min
 
 

Premiere

Premiere 3rd and 4th of March 2005, Švandovo Divadlo, Prague

Creative Team

created by Viliam Dočolomanský, Matej Matejka, Maja Jawor, Robert Nižník, Hana Varadzinová, Eliška Vavříková, Roman Horák

Directed by Viliam Dočolomanský

Musical direction Mariana Sadovska, Viliam Dočolomanský

musical dramaturgy, arrangement, vocal arrangement Viliam Dočolomanský, Mariana Sadovska

Dramaturgy Jana Pilátová

movement assistance Ivana Dukic

Scenography and costume design Barbora Erniholdová

Light design Daniel Tesař

Production Alena Baňáková

For Promoters

Farm in the Cave’s standard space requirements for performances are as follows: a space with good acoustics which can also be completely silent during performances; typically we use a black box or site-specific space with minimal dimensions of 10 x 10 meters, with a height of 6 meters; at least 6 months before the performance our technical team of 2-4 persons must make a preparatory visit.

The maximum number of audience members at individual performances varies, but is usually no more than 450. 
The number of performers per performance varies between 5 and 13, and the technical – production staff is between 4 and 6 people.
The minimum number of performances presented in one place is 2. The company can play 2 performances per day are available on request – the latest start time is 21:00 local time.
 
The length of preparation and adaptation depends on the specific performance and local conditions, with a minimum of 1-2 days necessary prior to the day of the first production.
Financial requirements are available upon request at info@farminthecave.com.
 

The organizers pay for: fees; costs of shipping scenography; personnel transport; local transportation to the performance location; housing; per-diems; costs connected with preparatory technical visit. The organizer agrees to pay for costs of equipment rental if the space to be used does not have the equipment necessary.