Dance Strong female positions at the Basel Theater Festival
The Theaterfestival Basel kicked off this year's edition on Tuesday evening with the gripping documentary theater musical "Los Dias Afuera" by Argentinian Lola Arias. The festival, which is characterized by strong female roles, runs until 1 September.
20.08.2024, 23:24
SDA
For her stage project, Argentinian theater maker Lola Arias has brought together trans people and women who have a past as prisoners in prisons. These are people who now work as cab drivers, perform in rock bands or earn their living as sex workers - and have children. Los Dias Afuera", or "The Days Outside", will be shown.
The evening, which entertains with lots of live rock and sophisticated live video cross-fades, draws its strength from the touching, highly personal accounts of people who have to find their way again after prison - from people who have not just acted it out, but have really experienced it and are still experiencing it.
Dance and performance
What is striking about the program of the biennial festival is the strong presence of dance and performance projects by and with women. These include the feminist-explicit and black-postcolonialist "truth show" by Frenchwoman Rébecca Chaillon entitled "Carte Noire Nommée Désir". Or the original skateboard dance project by Danish choreographer Mette Ingvartsen.
Tobias Brenk, who directs the festival, assures the Keystone-SDA news agency that he did not have a particular quota of women in mind when putting together the program. The high proportion of women is simply the result of the search for exciting, spectacular and relevant stage projects.
The Theaterfestival Basel will present eleven international productions and ten short plays from Latin America, North Africa and various European countries on many stages around the venues and the festival center on the central Kasernenareal for 13 days.
