VIE Scena Contemporanea Festival

C'est du chinois

Edit Kaldor

14/10/2011 , 23:00
15/10/2011 , 19:00

Concept, text and directed by Edit Kaldor
Assistant Yen Yitzu
Language consultant Xi Zeng
Performed by Nucheng Lu, Siping Yao, Aaron Chun Fai Wan, Lei Wang, Qifeng Shang
Dramaturgical advice Zhana Ivanova, Nicola Unger
Props and costumes Janneke Raaphorst
Lights and technique Ingeborg Slaats
Managment Hans Mets, Corine Snijders
Tour managment Caravan Production (Bruxelles)
Produced by Stichting Kata (Amsterdam), Productiehuis Rotterdam (Rotterdamse Schouwburg)
Co-produced by Alkantara Festival (Lisbon), Kunstenfestivaldesarts (Brussels), Göteborgs Dans & Teater Festival (Sweden), Steirischer Herbst festival (Graz), NXTSTP with the support of the Culture Programme of the European Union.
Project supported by Performing Arts Fund NL, VSBfund, Amsterdam Fund for the Arts research supported by HUB - Theatre in Motion (Beijing) project
co-produced by NXTSTP, with the support of the Culture Programme of the European Union
Thank to Mark Walraven, Esther Verhamme, Fenmei Hu, Mandy Xia, Frank Theys, Jacqueline Schoemaker, Andreas Bachmair, Effie Baert, Els Silvrants, Annemarie Montulet, Ivana, Xiang Wang, Lao Tao, Shi Xiaojuan, Pan Yong, Huang Wen, Mr.Yang, Peter Yang, Claude Pan, Corine Snijders, tour management Caravan Production (Brussels) klaus@caravanproduction.be

Running time 75'

In C’est du chinois Edit Kaldor introduces to us the Yao-Lu family from Shanghai. To stay in Europe, they have come up with a plan of action: making and selling interactive dvd-roms for future-minded Europeans who want to get a jumpstart in learning Mandarin. The performance is an occasion for the family to promote their new product, to widen their circle of potential costumers.
On stage: five Chinese citizens, determined to open up to the public. The only language they speak is Mandarin, but they are convinced this should not stand in the way of an auspicious exchange with the audience. Using the possibilities of theatrical representation, they teach us basic oral comprehension of the Mandarin language, just enough to understand the gradually unfolding narrative: the story of five individuals under pressure to reinvent themselves in order to make a living.

C’est du chinois is about communication – communication that is basically impossible, but which nevertheless comes into being through the common effort of players and spectators. Starting at zero, they create something together – the possibility of a personal encounter, of an intimate, face-to-face meeting.

* French expression, meaning “it's all Greek to me ” (literally "it's Chinese"), a phrase indicating that something is impossible to understand. The equivalent of this idiom in Mandarin is “聽起來像火星話。/听起来像火星话,” (literally, “sounds like Mars language”).

http://www.editkaldor.com

Edit Kaldor

Edit Kaldor was born in Budapest. At the age of 13 she immigrated to the United States, where she lived for ten years. She studied Literature and Theatre at Columbia University, and worked for 7 years with Peter Halasz (Squat theater/Love theater, New York) as dramaturge and video-maker.
After enrolling at DasArts (the postgraduate performing arts centre in Amsterdam) in 2000, she started writing and directing her own theatre pieces, which soon received international acclaim.
Currently she lives and works in Amsterdam, and makes intimate, existential theatre performances, such as Or Press Escape (2002), New Game (2004), Point Blank (2007), which push the boundaries of theatre, and often integrate the use of documentary elements. In recent years her work has toured widely in Europe and beyond.

The show

Programme