Origens/Origins 2010 – OFF THE WALL
Earlier in 2010, amid the heavy economic climate of funding cuts, we pulled out all efforts to maintain our commitment in continuing to bring unknown international playwriting gems to the UK. After two years of research, we put together, a festival of staged readings of European Plays written to celebrate 20 years of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
As well as presenting translations of stimulating and provocative “New European” writing, the performances were paired with new writing from the UK itself. The festival was a celebration of diversity and freshness, showing a slice of the best of Europe (UK included).
- Strangers by Spanish playwright Sergi Belbel; translated by Sharon Feldman; directed by Franko Figueiredo
Josep is arranging to sell the home where his family lived when he was a child; the experience causes him to look back on both the happy and painful experiences of his past. Strangers is a gripping tale charting the disintegration of two generations of a Spanish family where the seeds of narrow-minded hatred that was planted bear bitter fruit forty years later.
Strangers was first staged in Barcelona in 2004, and was made into a film by veteran Catalonian director, Ventura Pons in 2008.
- Gerbils in a Glass Cage by British playwright Rosaline Ting, directed by Tanja Pagnuco
Two sisters, two cultures, two mentalities, one family. One wants lasagne, moussaka, beef bourguignon, the other, dim sum in Chinatown!
- Supermarket by Serbian playwright Biljana Srbljanović; translated by Rebecca Rugg and Jens Giersdorf; directed by Natasha Nixon
Set in an Austrian school ten years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the characters find themselves in a merry-go-round of deluded paradise in their search for happiness and a meaning in life. Ping pong balls, an attempted murder and a ringing telephone are all part of the absurdist antics in this contemporary comic soap-opera.
Supermarket was first staged at the Festival of Vienna in May 2001.
- Night Dreaming by British playwright Lorna French, directed by Gael Le Cornec
A new city, a new life. Anya could hardly wait. But now, looking back through different eyes with different dreams, she doesn’t recognise herself.
- Electronic City by German Playwright Falk Richter; translated by Dr. Marlene J.Norst, directed by Kwong Loke
Tom is an executive; a high-flyer who goes from airport to airport, city to city. Joy is cashier no. 908; she studied Economics, held twenty-seven jobs in eight weeks. One day they met, had sex, and ever since have tried to match their flights to meet again at an airport lounge… This modern day Faust story examines the sterile lifestyle that afflicts the present generation: the sacrifice of humanity in pursuit of money and wealth.
Electronic City was first premiered in Bochum, Germany in October 2003
- My Territory by British playwright Bola Agbaje
A play about borders, space and ownership.
Origens Origins 2010 Off The Wall – was presented at SOHO Theatre and supported by The Goethe Institute, Cervantes Institute and the Serbian Embassy in London.
Produced by Franko Figueiredo, Alan Stow, Tanja Pagnuco and Kwong Loke