International Festival of Contemporary Theatre

Programme

Cry Me a River

Anna Mendelssohn

1, 2 October 19.00, Ģertrūdes ielas teātris | 10 and 7 Eur

Everything is so much more complicated than you think. There are a million little strings attached to every choice you make.At some point I began to cry. And that went on for many months. Because how do you refreeze the ice up there? It just can’t be done.

Cry Me A River is a solo about inner and outer climate catastrophes. Walking the thin ice between the personal and the political, the piece deals with the complexity of climate change communication and it’s rhetorics. Playing with the monologue-format it focuses in on the multiplicity of talking heads, voices and opinions buzzing around this topic. Emotions of fear, anger, hope and despair, strongly connected with visions of a changing climate are whenever necessary chemically reproduced or bio-engineered.

This performance is part of the Homo Novus festival programme ‘Austrian Focus’

About artist

Anna Mendelssohn studied acting in the UK at Dartington College of Arts and at Bretton Hall, School of Performing Arts. In 2004 she joined the company toxic dreams in Vienna and has since performed in more than 15 of their productions. She has also worked with numerous other directors and choreographers for example in 2005 with David Mayaan in the Wiener Festwochen production The Family Table, in 2009 at Landestheater Linz with André Turnheim (Venus im Pelz) and with SUPERAMAS in the production Empire (Art&Politics). In her own work she is interested in parallels between private-individual and global-political events and herein especially for the role of language and rhetorics. In 2010 she created the internationally successful and widely touring solo Cry Me A River, for which she received the actor’s prize at the renowned Impulse Festival 2011, as well as the Jury and the Coproduction prize at Arena Festival 2010.

Credits

Concept/Performance: Anna Mendelssohn
Artistic Collaboration: Yosi Wanunu
Music Composition: Jorge Sánchez-Chiong
Light Design: Jan Maertens, Technics: Edgar Aichinger
In co-operation with: Tanzquartier Wien
Supported by: the Cultural Department of the City of Vienna and bm:ukk, with the support of: PACT Zollverein (Essen)

Event in Riga is made possible by INTPA – International Net for Dance and Performance Austria of Tanzquartier Wien with funds by Bundeskanzleramt Austria and BMEIA

Meet the artist

After the show on 1 October at Ģertrūdes ielas teātris

Meet Anna Mendelssohn and Yosi Wanunu after the show on 1 October. The conversation about making of the performance and reflecting upon problematics of climate change in arts will be moderated by Liene Jurgelāne.