Stage Door News
Stage Door News
TORONTO (April 16, 2013) – Luminato Festival will present the North American premiere of THE LIFE AND DEATH OF MARINA ABRAMOVIC, a biography of the “godmother of performance art,” re-imagined by the visionary director Robert Wilson (Einstein on the Beach). THE LIFE AND DEATH OF MARINA ABRAMOVIC will run June 14-17 at the Bluma Appel Theatre as part of the 7th Annual Luminato Festival.
Marina Abramovic has earned international renown and acclaim for the boldness and startling originality of her work. So when Abramovic decided to put her life story onstage, she handed the reins to another avant- garde genius, internationally acclaimed director and visual artist Robert Wilson. The remarkable result, THE LIFE AND DEATH OF MARINA ABRAMOVIC, features Abramovic in dual roles—as herself and her mother— with film and stage actor Willem Dafoe as the narrator and her male counterpart.
THE LIFE AND DEATH OF MARINA ABRAMOVIC, which premiered at the Manchester International Festival, followed by a sold-out European tour including the Teatro Real in Madrid, the Holland Festival, Theater Basel and Art Basel in Switzerland, and de Singel in Antwerp, traces Abramovic’s remarkable journey from her troubled Serbian childhood to her ascension to the world’s artistic elite.
“I am so proud to have been involved with this project,” said Jorn Weisbrodt, Artistic Director, Luminato Festival, “from its impetus when Marina first phoned Wilson and asked him to direct her life, to its pending arrival at Luminato Festival for my second season as Artistic Director.”
With original and traditional music, including songs written and performed by the incomparable Antony (Antony and the Johnsons), and costumes designed by Jacques Reynaud, this groundbreaking achievement brings together the worlds of theatre, art and music to thrilling effect for a once-in-a-generation cultural event.
“The Life and Death of Marina Abramovic is one of those unique, mercurial projects whose grandeur and power cannot be planned when you first dive into its creation, but it is always hoped for,” added Weisbrodt. “Four of the greatest artists of our time, artists who could not be more different, collaborate to create something that is greater than their sum.”
MARINA ABRAMOVIC • Co-creator
Since the beginning of her career in Belgrade, Serbia, during the early 1970s, Marina Abramovic has pioneered performance as a visual art form, creating some of the most important early works. The body has always been both her subject and medium. Exploring her physical and mental limits in works that ritualize the simple actions of everyday life, she has withstood pain, exhaustion and danger in her quest for emotional and spiritual transformation. From 1975-88, Abramovic and the German artist Ulay performed together, dealing with relations of duality. Abramovic returned to solo performances in 1989. She has presented her work at major institutions in the US and Europe and has also participated in many large-scale international exhibitions. In 2008 she was decorated with the Austrian Commander Cross for her contribution to Art History. Abramovic was the subject of a major retrospective at New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 2010, where she famously sat for 736 hours staring into the eyes of whoever sat before her, as well as the subject of a feature-length documentary of the same name, “Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present.”
ROBERT WILSON • Concept, Director, Designer
The New York Times has described Robert Wilson as “a towering figure in the world of experimental theatre
. . . an explorer in the uses of time and space onstage. Transcending theatrical convention, he draws in other performance and graphic arts, which coalesce into an integrated tapestry of images and sounds.” Since the late 1960s, Robert Wilson's productions have decisively shaped the look of theatre and opera. Through his signature use of light, his investigations into the structure of a simple movement, and the classical rigor of his scenic and furniture design, Wilson has continuously articulated the force and originality of his vision. Wilson's ties and collaborations with leading artists, writers and musicians continue to fascinate audiences worldwide.
ANTONY • Musical Director, Composer and Lyricist
Antony is a musician and visual artist, best known as the lead singer of the band Antony and the Johnsons. Born in Sussex, UK, Antony also lived in Amsterdam and San Francisco before moving to New York in 1990 to attend the Experimental Theatre Wing of NYU. With his creative partner Johanna Constantine, he formed the performance collective Blacklips, and spent the next few years writing, singing and performing in clubs and late night theatres around New York. Antony and the Johnsons first appeared as a small orchestra in 1997, performing as part of William Basinki’s installation Life on Mars. Their debut album followed in 2000. Their second album I Am A Bird (2005) brought international acclaim and won the Mercury Music prize.
WILLEM DAFOE • Performer
Willem Dafoe first worked with Robert Wilson in his Zoom video portrait series. Dafoe is one of the original members of The Wooster Group, the NYC based theatre collective. He has created and performed in all the group's work from 1977 to 2004, both in the U.S. and internationally. He has also performed with Richard Foreman's Ontological-Hysteric Theatre in Miss Universal Happiness (1985) and The Idiot Savant (2009). He will next co-star with Mikhail Baryshnikov in Robert Wilson's The Old Woman. He has worked in over 80 films in Hollywood (Spider-Man, Mississippi Burning, Last Temptation of Christ, The English Patient), independent (4:44 Last Day on Earth, Auto Focus, Wild at Heart, Boondock Saints) and world cinema (The Hunter, Dust of Time, Antichrist). He was twice nominated for the Academy Award for Platoon and Shadow of the Vampire. His upcoming releases include Anton Corbijn's A Most Wanted Man, Lars Von Trier's Nymphomaniac, Scott Frank's Out of the Furnace and Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel.
THE LIFE AND DEATH OF MARINA ABRAMOVIC
St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, Bluma Appel Theatre, 27 Front Street East
June 14-17, 2013 – Four Performances Only!
Friday, Saturday and Monday @ 7:30pm • Sunday @ 2pm
Ticket prices range from $55 to $125 (inclusive of HST and facility fee; plus applicable service charges) Purchase online at luminatofestival.com or by phone at 416-368-4TIX (4849)
Ticket holders are invited to join Luminato Festival artistic director Jorn Weisbrodt for an introduction to THE LIFE AND DEATH OF MARINA ABRAMOVIC in the Bluma Appel lobby, prior to the performance
THE LIFE AND DEATH OF MARINA ABRAMOVIC was commissioned by Manchester International Festival and Teatro Real Madrid with Theater Basel, Art Basel, Holland Festival, Salford City Council and deSingel.
THE LIFE AND DEATH OF MARINA ABRAMOVIC is supported by Visa Infinite® and made possible by the generous support of the Marina Abramovic Circle: Jonas and Lynda Prince; Hal Jackman Foundation; Phil and Eli Taylor. Major Media Partner: The Globe and Mail
Amsterdam’s Métamatic Research Initiative has commissioned and produced with the Luminato Festival the MarinaAbramovicInstitute – Prototype, a singularly remarkable installation by performance artist Marina Abramovic, June 14-23.
Marina Abramovic will also speak at The Past, The Present And The Future Of Performance Art: A Lecture on Tuesday, June 18 at the Winter Garden Theatre.
Robert Wilson & Willem Dafoe Interviewed by John Rockwell will take place Saturday, June 15 at the Isabel Bader Theatre as part of TimesTalks Luminato.
The seventh annual Luminato Festival takes place from June 14–23, 2013. Tickets for all Luminato Festival 2013 programs will be available for sale beginning Saturday, April 20. For details, visit luminatofestival.com.
Twitter: @Luminato
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Photo: Willem Dafoe. ©2011 Marina Abramović.
2013-04-16
Toronto: Luminato will present “The Life and Death of Marina Abramović” directed by Robert Wilson