2017
Minor Planets, 2017
Performance
Photo: Hugo Glendinning
In Minor Planets, five performers work to make sense of themselves and their relation to each other as they traverse an impoverished landscape of detritus, wooden planks, sticks and fabric scraps. Using these inadequate resources, and locked in a decaying set of rules, mischievous games and other frameworks for action, the five negotiate a place for themselves, building and unbuilding a series of pathetic structures that both allow, define and ultimately hinder their interaction. Marginalized figures, existing always on the periphery, they attempt to make the best of the flimsy resources at their disposal, as they relentlessly journey through the space at times aided, and at other times hindered, by objects they carry with them.
Beginning initially with research into the Russian Revolution and its aftermath, Vlatka Horvat’s Minor Planets draws on her own experience of living through the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, which left in its wake confusion, corruption and opportunism. Looking at how people deal with structural collapse, the piece also tries to speak to the broader landscape of uncertainty that marks current events. A piece about resilience and stubborn perseverance, about finding humour in one’s predicament, about the drive to look ahead and keep going against odds, but also about the brutal and often dehumanizing effect change has on people as they repeatedly try to adjust to shifting rules and circumstances.
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Credits:
Commissioned and co-produced by HAU Hebbel am Ufer
Conceived and directed by Vlatka Horvat
Created with and performed by Neil Callaghan, Wendy Houstoun, Paul Hughes, Bruno Roubicek, Rohanne Udall
Project assistant: Hester Chillingworth
Dramaturgical input: Noemié Solomon, Tim Etchells
Stage design: Vlatka Horvat
Lighting design: Alex Fernandes
Tech: Alex Fernandes
Production management: Forced Entertainment
Created in the frame of “Utopian Realities,” a co-production of HAU Hebbel am Ufer and Haus der Kulturen der Welt as part of “100 Years of Now,” curated by HAU Hebbel am Ufer
Funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media
Research supported by PACT Zollverein.
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Press:
Didaskalije Theater Journal (pdf) – May 2017: “Bezdomne planety.” Essay by Katarzyna Torz on Vlatka Horvat: Minor Planets at HAU Berlin (in Polish).
Utopian Realities at HAU Hebbel am Ufer (pdf / link) – Jan 2017: Interview with Annemie Vaneckere about Vlatka Horvat: Minor Planets at HAU Hebbel am Ufer Berlin.
Minor Planets program (pdf) – Jan 2017: Interview with Tim Etchells about Vlatka Horvat: Minor Planets.
Lektoratur at HAU Berlin. (link) – Jan 2017: “Don’t Lose the Anger.” Interview with Renata Britvec about Vlatka Horvat: Minor Planets at HAU Berlin.
Die Freitag (link) – Jan 2017: Review of Vlatka Horvat: Minor Planets at HAU Berlin (in German).
