The Precision of Freedom

The Precision of Freedom is a theatre production by the company Banality Dreams. In The Precision of Freedom freedom is examined as experience, as opposed freedom to as a term or an ideal.

Information

(Objekt ID 53)
Object type Production
Premiere March 31, 2011
Produced by Banality Dreams
Coproducers , Hebbel am Ufer, Forum Freies Theater, Südpol Luzern
In collaboration with Black Box Teater, Rosendal Teater, Entré Scenen,
Audience Adults, Youth
Language English
Keywords Theatre, Collage, Music, Trash Theatre, Tragicomedy/Seriocomedy, Dance, Physical theatre
Running period 2010  
Website

Requirements to venue

Blackout No
More

In the production The Precision of Freedom seven actors perform in what is not a consistent story, but different looks at how people relate to each other and act in different situations relatable to freedom.

In the program by Black Box Teater the production was described in the following manner:

"What does this term mean to us today? How and why can we experience freedom when we are daily exposed to all kinds of commercials claiming they can give us exactly that?

The company Banality Dreams wants to show the audience real freedom. At the same time the question arises whether this really is possible to stage. Can one really decide what makes others feel free?

The characters are placed in banal, trivial situations during which they all search for moments of real personal freedom. Onstage a micro cosmos is created, where everything and all may end as the ultimate freedom icon. Through a long and direct form the audience is drawn into a world of its own, with its own dynamic, logic and order."

Critic Amund Grimstad in Klassekampen did describe the production like this:

"The performance has no story and hardly any stage design. A black room, seven performers and some props. Apparently most of it happens spontaneously and a tad undirected, but this is to the highest degree just apparently, because behind the examination and the experimental we find both strict direction and not least choreography. The seven in the company relate to each other and we get to take part in different kinds of human behaviour and not least on the nose observations on how humans act in groups and separately."

At the company's webpage Banality Dreams writes this about the production:

"The Precision of Freedom is (...) a theatre performance with seven actors focusing on the phenomenon of freedom in the modern western world. The Precision of Freedom investigates the experience of freedom placing it in opposition to freedom as concept or ideal. In this way we distinguish between freedom on one hand as a collective feeling of 'living in a world of boundless possibilities', with all its stereotypes and symbols, and on the other hand freedom as a deep individual feeling, unique and elusive. And where and how can we experience it, if all kind of things are displayed and sold to us as freedom, but very few of these things really give us a personal experience of it?"

Sources:

Black Box Teater, blackbox.no, 27.06.11, http://www.blackbox.no/content/titlePresentation.php?tid=2078&displayNav=false

Grimstad, Amund (2010, 30.03.), Review titled Små marginar (literally: Narrow margins) in Klassekampen [Oslo]. Available at the webpage of Amund Grimstad, amund.info, 27.06.2011, http://amund.info/2011/03/the-precision-of-freedom/

Banality Dreams - Performing Arts - Berlin/Oslo, banalitydreams.com, 27.06.11, http://banalitydreams.com/?page_id=1940&lang=en-us

Contributors (19)
Name Role
Johannes Dullin – Idea
Johannes Dullin – Direction
Raliza Nikolowa – Dramaturge
Andreas von Flotow – Dramaturge
Doro Brodrück – Costume
Aaike Stuart – Sound
Thomas Ness – Lighting design
Jonas Christen – Actor
Rosalind Goldberg – Actor
Signe Holtsmark – Actor
Giovanni Jussi – Actor
Carina Pousaz – Actor
Yupp Regeler – Actor
Franz Rogowski – Actor
Johanna von Gagern – Actor
Francesco Sologuren – Technical director
Evelin Hernández Quiñones – Director’s assistant
Hendrik Unger – Production manager
Kleon Medugorac – Other
Performance dates
April 1, 2011Store scene Black Box Teater (Marstrandgata) Show
March 31, 2011Store scene Black Box Teater (Marstrandgata) National premiere, Norway
2010 Opening night
Press coverage

"When the wish for freedom is at its strongest, the way to violation is at its shortest. There are many examples of this, in particular in the final which is a lot of bad tested dressed in beautiful finish, as a kind of aesthetic of the ugly. The performance is playful, full of apt observations, and not least it is pretty humorous. But an answer to what freedom is it didn't give. Perhaps it didn’t mean to either."

Grimstad, Amund (2010, 30.03.), Review titled Små marginar (literally: Narrow margins) in Klassekampen [Oslo]. Tilgjengelig på Amund Grimstad, amund.info, 27.06.2011, http://amund.info/2011/03/the-precision-of-freedom/