Octavia. Trepanation – Holland Festival

Octavia. Trepanation investigates the bloody mechanisms of the revolution. This opera, which has its world premiere at the Holland Festival, is by composer Dmitri Kourliandski and director Boris Yukhananov, the artistic director of Moscow’s Stanislavsky Electrotheatre. They call it an ‘opera-operation’. On stage stands a giant replica of Lenin's head, the skull of which is being trepanated. Kourliandski's music consists of socialist hymns stretched out in time, texts by the Marxist revolutionary Leon Trotsky and excerpts from Octavia, a play attributed to Seneca about the Roman emperor Nero. Is art capable of explaining tyranny? Programme book

(1835). In The Gabriels director Richard Nelson reflects on the recent American election year through the eyes of an ordinary family. Other artists focus on controversies in democracies, such as the issue of refugees in directors Dieudonné Niangouna and Thomas Bellinck’s performances. Others address the threat of violence (Demolishing Everything with Amazing Speed), tyranny (Octavia), or shaping activism (The Tempest Society). In Manifesto the film director Julian Rosefeldt examines the relation between art and society.

We are presenting two national theatre production companies, each with its own state of the nation: My Country by the National Theatre in London, and The Nation by the Dutch National Theatre in The Hague. Both performances show divided countries in which no one, from politicians to citizens, seems to dare to take responsibility. We also believe that it is important to explore democracy of form. Members of the audience can get actively involved as a passer-by, participant, or activist, if they so wish. Our artists encourage you to question the old hierarchy between the audience and the artists.

This year several festival artists are looking at the problems faced by Western democracies. The French philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville admired democracy for its social equality. He saw its dangers too. Director Romeo Castellucci is making La Democrazia in America, based on De Tocqueville’s eponymous book

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credits

concept Boris Joechananov, Sergei Adonev concept, conceptual elaboration Boris Joechananov, Sergei Adonev libretto Boris Joechananov, Dmitri Kourliandski direction Boris Joechananov, Dmitri Kourliandski set design Stepan Lukyanov costumes Anastasia Nefyodova choreography Andrei Kuznetsov-Vecheslov sound design Oleg Makarov Russian translation Sergei Osherov English translation John Freedman production Stanislavsky Electrotheatre coproduction Stanislavsky Electrotheatre, Holland Festival in participation with Change Performing Arts

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related

The Parliament of Things

Workshop: Handbook for the Anthropocene

Talkshow: our post-humane democracy in 60 minutes

Group Talk: Democracy

Spui25: Octavia

credits

This performance is made possible by

Otemba - Daring Women