Glej,
Café Europe

»Decaying self in decaying Europe.« 

Gallery

About the performance

»If you are alone for too long, you start going mad.« (Lana, 19 years)

»Yes, I believe in God. But I still smoke, drink and have sex. And I do not even pray. But it does not mean I am a bad person.« (Majid, 20 years)

»My limbic system speaks a whole other language than my cortex. So we do not really get along.« (David, 19 years)

»You must work on yourself. Work on yourself.« (Anže, 19 years)

»I have no idea, where I am going.« (Pia, 20 years)

»Good mother ... She respects a man, she knows how to behave herself. She does not have a kid in the trolley while she walks around in a short skirt, looking like a slut.« (Karmen, 18 years)

»Everyone feels this way, right?«

Dobrodošli! Bienvenuti! Wilkommen! Bienvenue! Welcome to Café Europe! Slightly decaying, mostly without sense, continuously lost and strongly divided. Let's face our fears, play with our expectations, fall apart infront of the eyes of decaying Europe. We are cought somewhere in between. Who are we? Where are we going? 

Café Europe is a symbolic site of European Union, contemporary Babel in which identities live together in different contexts: some with the other, some pass by the other, and some fight against each other. Café Europe gives a voice to the generation that was robbed of it. It is a brutal confrontation with existential and social questions of national and European identity, social norms and structural place of young people in our societies. 

Tower of Babel builds itself and falls apart in front of our eyes. Café Europe uses different techniques of contemporary devised theatre, move, text and music. It builds mosaic of different and often contradictory position of young generation. Here and now. We are and they are. We are not and they are not. Everywhere and nowhere. Decaying self in decaying Europe.  

Credits

 

Authors and performers: Anna Andolšek, Laura Antončič, Manca Dečman, Almedin Kajtazović, Tina Malenšek, Kaja Savodnik, Nina Žerdin
Mentors: Vid Klemenc, Anja Pirnat
Costume designer: Mateja Čibej
Researcher: Anja Pirnat
Video design: Borut Bučinel
Light design: Grega Mohorčič
Adviser for choreography: Klemen Janežič
Head of the technical team: Grega Mohorčič
Executive producer: Inga Remeta
Produced by Glej Theatre

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission, Creative Europe Culture programme. This communication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

Project is also supported by Municipality of Ljubljana and Slovenian Ministry of Culture.

About the project

Café Europe is a part of ID: BABYLON, which is a theatre project exploring the experiences of teenagers across Europe. It began in late 2018 with anthropological research in the form of conversations and interviews with young people with experience of migration and from a broad range of backgrounds. The interests, hopes and fears they discussed will form the basis of the work produced.

The project partners formed ID: BABYLON in response to issues impacting teenagers today, including the rise of extremism and nationalism and issues around migration and the movement of people. Our vision for the project is the development of transnational identity and values and a sense of European citizenship for young people, which will help them to look beyond the borders of their origin. More about the project.

Festivals and rewards

Recontres européennes Théâtre Adolescence - festival of youth theatres/ID Babylon, 5 - 6 April 2019, France, Clermont-Ferrand

Festival Vizije - 17.-19. maj 2019, Nova Gorica, Slovenija