Comparatively Peaceful Existence / Poměrně klidná bytost

Presented by Archa Theatre, at Ponec Theatre on April 11th and 12th 2003 at 8 pm.

A Movement Video SMS Experiment

A solo performance with 4 assistants: interactive light, movement, video art, sound, and space. Dreams and reality are reflected in a glass cube. Alice attempts to return back to Wonderland as a grownup woman.

Author, video art and graphics: Stefanía Thors (Iceland). Author, Director and Dramaturgy assistance: Nikola Závisic (Serbia) and Rebekka A. Ingimundardóttir (Iceland). Music: David Vrbík (ČR). VJ: Sota Sakuma (Japan). Performers: Stefanía Thors, Jiří Zeman (ČR), Sota Sakuma, Petr Krušelnický (ČR).

Premiere performance!!!

Comparatively Peaceful Existence is a solo performance for 1 actor - the Icelandic artist Stefania Thors - and 4 assistants. Stefania Thors, the author and main actor in the piece, combines physical - movement theatre with the world of contemporary multimedia and technology: video projections, animation and video-art, movement recorded by a video-camera projecting actual images onto several screens, SMS messages and distinctive light and sound design all combined with non-traditional scenography.

While using new techniques, Stefania Thors confronts fundamental (timeless) human questions. The contemporary world is presented through the eyes of a woman, who asks herself, how much space is needed for life. The performance also presents parallels with Alice in Wonderland. Alice is at that time in her life, when many women suspect that if they have not yet married by the age of thirty, it will be too late to find someone. Sometimes you have to do what is expected of you - sometimes to be single. Sometimes to be married.

In Comparatively Peaceful Existence, Thors answers these questions through SMS messages, which she herself received over a one-year period. With all the technological approaches, Stefania, nonetheless, turns to distinct emotional expression. What images of our inner lives are created? What is reality and what is a technological image? Stefania Thors wrote the main text and story, with several parts borrowed from Lewis Carroll. The author combines these texts with messages, which she received from friends on her mobile telephone - SMS messages. The texts are separated into seven stories, both in English and Czech.

The main visual element is a cube, demarcating the space of existence / the actors and VJ mix of images from the running video camera and pre-recorded video art. The beings are accessible through the use of video cameras / interactivity for the actor. In the space outside of the cube, presented by four assistants (Sota Sakuma, Petr Krušelnický, David Vrbík and Jiří Zeman), the actors create an inner world with all its banality, speed, reserve and artificial optimism.

Stefania Thors was born in Reykjavik in Iceland. She studied alternative and puppet theatre at the Prague Academy for Dramatic Arts (DAMU) and has completed many movement workshops. Since 1996, she has been living in Prague and working mainly with movement, visual and multi-media theatrical experiments. In addition to others, she has participated in the performances Peculiarity/Divnosti (Alfred ve dvoře, Kolín), Life of a Person/Život člověka (Iceland, Roxy), Uno, duo, tre, stella (Poland, Emauzy), Laufey (Damúza, festival Next Wave, Alfréd ve dvoře, Romania, Iceland), Woman/Žena (Prague Action Festival), 7 Years of Luck /7 let štěstí, One/Jeden and What? (Broumov).

Staging and light design: Štěpán Kuklík
Light design and video projections: Adam Patyk
Lighting: Adam Wolf

The performance is supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, the Open Society Fund Prague, Metrostav, Perspex and Toni & Guy.