Body Safe(er)
Intro
Serie FROM BONDAGE TO FREEDOM
Contemporary Physical Theatre
Duration: 60 min.
Prizewinner at the Theatre Exhibition of Barcelona “MOSTRA DE TEATRE EMERGENT”
The idea of the show originated when I returned back to my homeland, Croatia (ex-Yugoslavia), after having been away for ten years. It was this harsh reunion with the reality of my own family, friends and country, after an eight-year international tour with LA FURA DELS BAUS that hatched this theatrical creation of ironic disenchantment. As I was working on the project I began to ask myself whether life really existed in other lands and latitudes, just as I wondered about the absurdity of individual submission.
Synopsis
Two women are buried in two wooden boxes. One man is looking after them. Why is he so insensible? Why so many planes taking off in this kind of happy sky, in this false sky? An atmosphere of abstraction that has no place in the mind or in the world. At the same time, a hyperrealist performance that takes the audience to the uncomfortable worlds that exist in this planet, habited by those forced and segregated bodies. The multitudes that lie in oblivion reappear from obscure bends‚ or perhaps it is nothing but us, dreaming in our quotidian prisons. Essential theatre that exploits the anguish caused by the violence and the solitude. Scenic simplicity, strong symbolism, allusions to the conflict between the east and the west, memories of a disappearing world
“Hospitals, schools, prisons, kennels‚
Flats, jobs, marriages, dogmas, egos, fears‚
We are locked in even in our dreams‚…”
Technical rider
Stage (minimum measures)
Wide: 7 m.
Deep: 5 m.
Technically we use our body in it’s immobile state and the visibility of our heads, so we prefer to perform in a space for max. 100 ‚Äö√Ñ√¨ 150 people so as to maintain an intimate and direct relation with the audience.
A non conventional space is preferable.
Video equipment:
1video beamer ( we bring one for subtitles and need one for airplane projection)
1 VHS player. Audio line to be passed through the mixing desk, with all corresponding cables
Sound (adjustable to the venue)
If the space acustic allows us we preferred to do without microphones. But in the case:
Microphones: 2 x lapel clip wireless mics. preferably UHF Diversity/Shure or Sennheiser
Capsules : MK-E2, MKE40
Mixing desk : minimum 8/10 channels 2 pre-auxiliaries 1 post auxiliary
2 compression channels type OBX166 BSS
1 multi-effects type SPX, REV7, Lexicon
1 cassette desk or mini-disc
4 equalizers (31 bands)
1 Sound technician (can be the same as for the lights)
All corresponding cables
1 CD player
Lighting:
- minimum 8 or 12 adjustable spots (according to space) PC
- 1 bull’s eye shaper spot
- White light depending on space (500W, 1000W, or 2000W)
- 1 Lighting technician
SET UP
Load in : 8-10 hours (with technical rehearsal)
Load out : 5 hours
Technical crew from the CY. : 1 person minimum (2 if overseas)
Artistic crew : 5
Artistic credits
Idea and Direction Semolina Tomic
With: Susana Goulart, Alberto Pacco, Semolina Tomic
Stage Scene and Technique: Alberto Pacco
Sound: Xavi Marx
Coproduction:
L’Antic teatre- L’Espai de Creació, Barcelona
Mercat de les Flors, Barcelona
Gallery
Press
Review
Critica de Manuel Sesma S. PRIMER ACTE núm.298
“Body Safe(er), written, directed and performed by the croatian Juijana Tomic (Semolina) gets the spectator deep down into the underground, a hole for the cruelty occupied by the abyss of human corrosion. First of all, it is significant to highlight the exterior scenery, which is the one of La Parala.
After waiting in an infamous foyer for its dimension and sinister aspect, the audience enter the space in groups of four or five, surrounded by the same mystery as in Carta de Amor, according to the staging proposed by Juan Carlos Perez de la Fuente. People get into the room in total darkness, guided by a character that carries a torch.
Wailing sounds, creaking doors, sirens, chains, knives sharpening, water dripping. These are some of the gruesome attributes that create a murky atmosphere where a woman is submerged into a box filled with humid sand. Only her head shows from this box made of wood. There is a faint light that hardy allows the audience to perceive the slight gestures of this unfortunate woman.
The work of Semolina Tomic in Body Safe(er) is impeccable, both in terms of the setup and her acting qualities. This show captures the cruelty to the extreme of needing to say ¬”Enough!”; it irritates, hurts in the intelligence and the soul of the spectator.
Two women are buried in boxes of a subterranean world, an atrocious and denigrating prison, watched over by a harsh and insensitive character.The outside world, only interested in the economic speculation is implied by the constant images of a landscape flied over periodically by a plane. These images come from thoughts and desires, from the power of the mind.
The two women let themselves go, increasing their hysteria, their revulsion and sarcasm towards the objects that are looking at them, towards the impassive spectators who are, however, raked up in their inner worlds. With no doubt, Body Safe(er) has been the best performance presented in the Open Scene Festival (Festival de Escena Abierta, Burgos, Spain)”