Stage Door News
Stage Door News
A daring representation of the world we live in, don’t miss the return of Hotel Modern’s masterwork, KAMP, to World Stage Redux.
First shared in Toronto by World Stage in 2013, KAMP presents a single, unremarkable day in a city purpose-built for the annihilation of human life. An enormous scale model of Auschwitz fills the stage with overcrowded barracks, a railway track and a gateway with the infamous slogan, “Arbeit Macht Frei.” This colossal scale model is inhabited by thousands of handmade puppets that represent the prisoners and their executioners at an astonishing ratio of 1 to 10.
Filming the events with tiny cameras and setting the puppets to tasks both horrific and banal, the extraordinary artists of Hotel Modern become models. Their resolution in this work is to salvage human creativity from the banality of evil and depravity. The performance is as vital today as it has ever been.
TICKETS
Regular: $35
Students & Youth: $15
DURATION
50 minutes
VENUE
Harbourfront Centre Theatre
DATES & TIMES
1Thu, April 13 > 8pm
2Fri, April 14 > 8pm
3Sat, April 15 > 8pm
4Sun, April 16 > 2pm
ABOUT HOTEL MODERN
Dutch theatre group Hotel Modern blends visual art, puppetry, music, film and performance in expressive theatre productions. The group’s visual language is rich and playful. Scale models play an important role in their work, allowing Hotel Modern to view the world literally from a macro perspective.
The horror of war is a frequently recurring theme in the group’s work: KAMP is a theatrical portrait of Auschwitz, while The Great War depicts the First World War as seen through the eyes of the soldiers. Hotel Modern also make absurdist, lighter-hearted work, such as Shrimp Tales, which is a high-spirited portrayal of humanity in which 350 real, dried shrimps play the roles of people.
The members of Hotel Modern are idealistic in the sense that they believe that theatre can foster a sense of reconciliation. They seek to offer solace in a world where people are sometimes afraid of one another. The group achieves this not by presenting a rose-tinted vision of the world, but by formulating a refined, confronting and poetic interpretation of reality.
Photo: Scene from KAMP. ©Leo Van Velzen.
2017-02-28
Toronto: Hotel Modern's "KAMP" returns to World Stage April 13-16