Festival Programme

Audre Lorde, Poetry Is Not a Luxury:

“We can train ourselves to respect our feelings, and to discipline (transpose) them into a language that matches those feelings so they can be shared. And where that language does not yet exist, it is our poetry which helps to fashion it. Poetry is not only dream or vision, it is the skeleton architecture of our lives. It lays the foundation for a future of change, a bridge across our fears of what has never been before.”

Dear audience,
The above quote comes from the annotation for Gisèle Vienne’s production Extra Life, a highlight of this year’s festival. This definition of poetry, conceived by Audre Lorde, an American philosopher and feminist writer, aptly captures one of the essential roles of theatre as I perceive and embrace it. Indeed, theatre is a space that consciously avows the irrational, the fact that our world cannot be fully comprehended and explained by reason and is not always fair. Transcending words, political constructs and human narrow-mindedness, theatre provides a space for miracles, cognition, and encounters – with other people, lines of thought, or poetry. Theatre as a physical experience stimulates our senses in a way different from the common media, which perhaps cannot change the world but surely is capable of transforming an individual. I am convinced that the three outstanding productions selected for this year’s Prague Crossroads Festival will create such a unique space.

The 7th edition of the Prague Crossroads Festival takes place in autumn 2024 and offers a programme that will satisfy the tastes of every theatre enthusiast. In the line of the festival’s mission to present pieces that tackle pressing political issues or instigate a discussion over general social problems, the three productions we bring to the audiences attracted our attention thanks to their topics as well as remarkable directors. This year, we present Stefan Kaegi and Rimini Protokoll with their production This Is Not An Embassy (Made in Taiwan), Milo Rau and NTGent with their latest production Medea's Children, and the first-time guest in Prague, the French-Austrian director Gisèle Vienne with her spectacular show Extra Life with Adèle Haenel starring in one of the main roles. The festival also offers a rich accompanying programme and meetings with the creators.

As a continuation of the co-production line, we participated in the production This Is Not an Embassy (Made in Taiwan) created in the collaboration between Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne, Switzerland, and the Taiwanese National Theatre in Taipei. Rimini Protokoll and Stefan Kaegi are known to the Czech audience as frequent guests at various local festivals. The decision to co-produce this project was driven by its theme, as the Czech Republic has maintained extraordinary and cordial relations with Taiwan since the Velvet Revolution. When I visited Taiwan and mentioned the Czech Republic, people would spontaneously recall Miloš Vystrčil, the President of the Czech Senate. It was a peculiar experience, hearing the name of a Czech politician in such a distant country, and I was thus eager to bring the season’s top theatre production, moreover dedicated to Taiwan and its history, to Prague.

Please accept this invitation to the three exceptional productions and visit the New Stage in November. We promise you a truly unforgettable theatre experience. We are looking forward to seeing you.

On behalf of the festival team,
Nina Jacques
Programmer of the Prague Crossroads Festival