ABROAD/WAY BULLETPOINTS FOR AUG. 20, 2024
Award winners out of Edinburgh, a far-right culture minister's assault on Slovakian arts institutions, a politically delicate play about Taiwan, and more
Welcome to the latest edition of ABROAD/WAY BULLETPOINTS, my regular roundup of theater headlines from around the world. New to Jaques? Check out this handy explainer.
This year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe shows are beginning to rack up local awards via the Scotsman’s Fringe First Awards. In batches of winners announced first in week one and then in week two of the monthlong fest, honors have gone to early buzzmagnets including a queer Cyrano; a new black comedy about the climate crisis, Weather Girl; and the musical love story A History of Paper. Also gaining notice in roundups like this one in The Times are Sh!t Theatre’s show about grief, Or What’s Left of Us; coming-of-ager Playfight; and a production of Adam Rapp’s Tony-nominated two-hander The Sound Inside.
The New York Times has a profile of producer Francesca Moody, whose stellar track record includes Fringe successes Fleabag and Baby Reindeer, and a look at TERF, a play about J.K. Rowling that hasn’t turned out to be the controversial breakout it promised to be. The paper also has a photo essay from the city’s bustling streets.
Meanwhile, power outages are making the fest more chaotic—maybe in a good way—and neurodiversity is a hot topic.
My recent story about the Fringe includes insights from hitmaker Francesca Moody on the uses of the fest:
Slovakia’s far-right culture minister fired the director of the Slovak National Theatre in part of what is described by critics as “a concerted crackdown on freedom of artistic expression and a systematic assault on the central European republic’s state institutions,” according to writer Philip Oltermann in the Guardian. Described as “a former TV presenter whose media career was ended over anti-refugee posts on social media and who was nominated for ‘homophobe of the year’ by [a] Slovak human rights institute,” culture minister Martina Šimkovičová also “dismissed the board of the Slovak Fund for the Promotion of the Arts … as well as withdrawing funding for Bratislava’s brutalist House of Culture and firing the heads of the National Library and children’s museum Bibiana. Her bill to dissolve the public service broadcaster RTVS and replace it with a new entity under full control of the government sparked mass protests in June.” The dismissal of Matej Drlička from the Slovak National Theatre came “just days after he was awarded the French Order of Arts and Letters at the rank of knight by France’s culture minister.”
Political tensions have also impacted a Taiwanese play now launching a European tour. Organizers say that theaters, arts festivals and other institutions in Singapore, Japan, New Zealand and Germany have refused to stage the show, called This Is Not an Embassy, due to political pressure from China (which claims Taiwan as a Chinese territory). Created by a mix of Taiwanese and Swiss artists, the play depicts three Taiwanese characters debating politically sensitive topics and addressing “Taiwan’s lack of global recognition as a country and the diplomatic challenges it faces as a result,” according to Chi-hui Lin in the Guardian. “The production team told the Guardian that ahead of the last tour, Chinese authorities had called the Swiss foreign ministry and other municipal officials to express concern about the play being staged in the host theatre, in Vidy-Lausanne,” added the writer. The show went on despite that pressure, and its European tour begins this month.
There’s more about theater in Taipei in my story about a musical based Ang Lee’s The Wedding Banquet:
“The world’s first mega-musical on [Hindu god] Shri Krishna” recently opened at Mumbai’s Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre, the luxe venue that’s become a new Indian stop for international Broadway tours like The Sound of Music and Matilda. With India increasingly on the radar as a potentially lucrative new market for Broadway fare (and local talent like A.R. Rahman talking up the idea of creating their own version of Broadway in the region), this new original musical features more than 60 dancers, 1,800 costumes, and a score that combines Western symphonic elements with a mix of Indian music genres, according to a feature in Millennium Post. Created by writer-lyricist Prasoon Joshi and composer duo Sachin-Jigar, the show depicts Krishna’s life from his “playful escapades as the mischievous cowherd in Gokul, endearing himself to the village folk, to his profound role as the wise charioteer imparting the timeless wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita,” capturing “the essence of Krishna’s multifaceted persona,” says the story.
A well-known Emirati TV drama is getting a new stage adaptation in Abu Dhabi as part of a government-backed push to boost local talents to greater prominence both nationally and internationally. Based on the 1976 series Ashhafan, the play is supported by the Department of Culture and Tourism (Abu Dhabi) in collaboration with Akasa Media Consultancy and Studies, and is spearheaded by the Zayed Higher Organization for People of Determination, which aims to discover local talents in the arts and create “the appropriate environment for them to compete globally … through a comprehensive program that ensures their talents and skills are honed to enhance their presence in many local and international forums,” according to Emirates News Agency.
Salzburg doesn’t love The Sound of Music as much as the rest of the world, reports Olivia Hampton on NPR. Locations from the movie, which was filmed in the Austrian city 60 years ago this year, are among the tourist attractions (alongside the Salzburg Festival and sites related to Mozart) that draw some three million people annually to the town and generate around a billion euros. “Despite the global appeal, many Salzburg locals haven’t seen the film or feel little emotional connection to the story filled with uplifting plotlines and catchy Rodgers and Hammerstein tunes,” Hampton says. Also touched on in the story: the real-life Von Trapps and where they are now, and a Salzburg Marionette Theater production of the family’s history.
The New York Times has an interview with iconoclastic director Ivo van Hove on the occasion of his first outing at the helm of the Ruhrtriennale Festival of the Arts in Germany, discussing his current projects (including I Want Absolute Beauty, a collaboration with actor Sandra Hüller and musician P.J. Harvey); adapting movies for the stage; and when we might expect to see him on Broadway again. “It happens now that I work more in London because a lot of producers want to produce in London, see how it goes and then move it, because of expense,” he tells writer Elisabeth Vincentelli.
I went to the Ruhr region of Germany for my story about the record-breaking local run of Starlight Express:
Once On This Island will play Manila…
… First Date is gearing up to open in Madrid …
and Hamburg has found its Michael Jackson, with Benét Monteiro snagging the title role in Stage Entertainment’s Broadway replica of MJ. Monteiro dons the sequined glove after headlining big-deal local productions of Disney’s Hercules and Hamilton.
JUST A REMINDER
I’m on a hiatus from SPOTLIGHT STORIES (like this popular interview with Chunsoo Shin, the Korean production of Broadway’s The Great Gatsby) so paid subscriptions are temporarily paused. That means that billing cycles are currently frozen for both monthly and annual subscribers; they’ll resume (with ample warning) in the fall with the first of the SPOTLIGHT STORIES I’ve got on deck for Jaques Year 2.
In the meantime, these ABROAD/WAY BULLETPOINTS will continue to land in your inbox every other week. See you in a fortnight.