Burt Turrido. An Opera

The New York theatre artist duo Kelly Copper and Pavol Liška of the “Nature Theatre of Oklahoma” is one of the most interesting and unconventional voices in international theatre today. In their performances, they exaggerate individual words, gestures and details, laying bare the idiosyncrasy and nonsense of their material. Not only do their performances reveal the triviality of everyday life, but also rediscover the fundamentals of theatre itself. In the production “Burt Turrido”, the artists analyse opera for the first time, a genre which attracts international attention for its artistic practice and often spectacular architecture. “Burt Turrido” is the story of a castaway who lands on an island peopled by ghosts and who falls into the clutches of a despotic royal couple. It also portrays an isolated society on the brink of destruction. In this production, the artists apply their practice of appropriation and exaggeration, and irreverently make use of the full range of classical opera motifs, such as the Flying Dutchman.

The production is jointly organised by the Schauspiel Frankfurt with the Mousonturm and the Nature Theatre of Oklahoma. From this collaboration between an established theatre, an international production company and an independent group comes an extraordinary project that defies genre classification with combined elements of spoken theatre, opera and performance. The world premiere will be presented at the festival “Frankfurter Positionen – Festival für Neue Werke” at the Bockenheimer Depot and will later be shown at the venues of other cooperation partners in Germany and abroad.

Artistic director: Kelly Copper, Pavol Liška
Co-producers: Arctic Arts Festival (Harstad/Norway), HAU Hebbel am Ufer (Berlin) and others

Events

Premiere + Shows: Noorderzon Festival of Performing Arts & Society (Netherlands), 20–22 August 2021
Shows: Wiener Festwochen (Austria), 26–27, 29–30 August 2021; Züricher Theater Spektakel (Switzerland), 3–5 September 2021; Espoo City Theatre (Finland), 16–18 December 2021