Stefan Kaegi/Rimini Protokoll (CH/DE)
Festspielhaus Hellerau, Dresden
Cuba has always been a projection space for utopians and an enemy image for their critics. In the 60th year after the revolution, Rimini Protokoll asked the grandchildren for their references to the myth and reality of the revolution and invited four of them to tell their stories. For example, Daniel, 36, is a mathematician and filmmaker. His grandfather, Faustino Pérez, was one of Fidel Castro’s most familiar comrades and in 1956 organized the ship “Granma”, which brought the revolutionaries from Mexico to Cuba. After their triumph, Pérez became the first minister for the recovery of embezzled goods and began the expropriation of the elites. His grandson Daniel still owns the catalogue of an auction where noble hair clips and beach villas were auctioned. But what can he buy from it today?
In “Granma. Trombones from Havana”, young Cubans and 31-year-old musician Diana, whose grandfather founded the “Orquesta Maravillas de Florida”, travel back in time for several generations and interweave their family histories with the socio-political questions of a present in which Cuba is changing. Together with the composer Ari Benjamin Meyers and four trombones, they are also practicing musical-revolutionary practice: learning something together that one never thought possible before.
Presented in Spanish with English and German subtitles.
Credits
With: Milagro Álvarez Leliebre, Daniel Cruces-Pérez, Christian Paneque Moreda, Diana Sainz Mena
Concept / Direction: Stefan Kaegi
Stage: Alyosha Begrich
Video: Mikko Gaestel
Composition: Ari Benjamin Meyers
Sound Design: Tito Toblerone, Aaron Ghantus
Dramaturgy: Alyosha Begrich, Yohayna Hernández
Costume: Julia Casabona
Technical cable/light design: Sven Nichterlein
Production Management: Maitén Arns
Collaboration video: Marta María Borrás
Collaboration dramaturgy: Ricardo Sarmiento
Director’s Resistance: Noemi Berkowitz
Stage design assistant: Julia Casabona
Production assistance: Federico Schwindt, Dianelis Diéguez
Hospitanz: Joana Falkenberg (stage), Ignacia González (director), Lenna Stam (costume)
Touring Management: Maitén Arns, Federico Schwindt (on tour)
Surtitles: Meret Kündig, Federico Schwindt (on tour)
Translation: Meret Kündig, Franziska Muche, Anna Galt, Marta Vukovic, Adrien Leroux (Panthea)
Trombone lessons: Yoandry Argudin Ferrer, Diana Sainz Mena and Rob Gutowski
Research Cuba: Residencia Documenta Sur, coordinated by the Laboratorio Escénico de Experimentación Social: Maité Hernandéz-Lorenzo (investigadora y periodista), Karina Pino Gallardo (residente), José Ramón Hernández Suárez (residente), Ricardo Sarmiento Ramírez (residente), Taimi Diéguez Mallo (residente) y Miriam E. González Abad (productora).
A production by Rimini Protokoll and Maxim Gorki Theater Berlin in co-production with Emilia Romagna Teatro Fondazione, Festival TransAmériques (Montréal), Kaserne Basel, Onassis Cultural Centre – Athens, Théatre Vidy-Lausanne, LuganoInscena-Lac, Zürcher Theaterpektakel, Festival D’Avignon. Supported by the Federal Cultural Foundation, Pro Helvetia, Senate Department for Culture and Europe. In collaboration with the Goethe-Institut Havana.
