Propaganda! In Trafó, Boedapest

Dinsdag 22 februari 2011 - In theater Trafó speelt vanaf donderdag 24 februari tot en met zaterdag 26 februari de theater-musical –dansvoorstelling 'Propaganda!' Dit is een co-productie van het Hongaarse gezelschap the Symptoms (Tünet Együttes) en het Nederlands-Oostenrijkse duo United Sorry (Frans Poelstra & Robert Steijn). Propaganda! gaat over de politiek in het dagelijks leven, en over hoe politici de propaganda tegenwoordig gebruiken.

'Propaganda! is a co-production of The Symptoms (Tünet Együttes) with the Dutch-Austrian artists' duo United Sorry (Frans Poelstra & Robert Steijn). The timely thought-provoking performance questions the language and imagery of the current political debate and investigates the notion of identity in an ever-changing society. United Sorry and The Symptoms elaborate new forms of propaganda that contradict the flashy one-liners and the slick imagery of political campaigns, combining rhetorical theatre with performance art. The play is the first stage of a series of collaborations initiated by United Sorry to investigate the issue of propaganda in different formats in different European countries. The project aims to enlist the specific tools and strategies of political propaganda and use them as creative means for changing the political debates in Europe.

Frans Poelstra and Robert Steijn, besides their theatrical projects, also make performances for galleries, musea, festival openings and endings. They emphasize the necessity of playfulness in imagination, behaviour and thinking, but they also want to stimulate the listening to the senses, and they cannot help it to make a reflecting kind of poetry of topics that are in the centre of public debate (within the art scene or in the mass media). The Symptoms are a performance collective organised around the Hungarian dancer and choreographer Réka Szabó. Originally a mathematician, Szabó has been building her company with dancers and actors since 2002. Over the years, The Symptoms have been invited to various festivals and venues in Europe, including The Place in London, the National Theatre of Prague, and the Schauspiel in Cologne, to name but a few.'