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Granma: Trombones from Havana

Stefan Kaegi — Rimini Protokoll

Dates

Prices

5 — 24 €

Location

Onassis Stegi
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Time & Date

Day
Time
Venue
Day
Thursday-Saturday
Time
20:30
Venue
Main Stage

Information

Tickets

Onassis Stegi Friends presale: from 22 NOV 2019, 17:00
General presale: from 29 NOV 2019, 17:00

Full price: 5, 7, 15, 20, 24 €
Reduced, Friend & Groups 5-9 people: 12, 16, 19 €
Groups 10+ people: 11, 14, 17 €
Neighborhood residents: 7 €
People with disabilities, Unemployed: 5 €
Companions: 10€

Group ticket reservations at groupsales@onassis.org

Stefan Kaegi, a founding member of Rimini Protokoll, boards the legendary yacht “Granma” to recreate the Cuban utopian vision and its disappointments, 63 years later.

Photo: Ute Langkafel

What if the Cuba of Fidel Castro could live again? What if the generation of young Cubans were dreaming of a different utopia? What if the trombones of Buena Vista were to sound again?

Stefan Kaegi, co-founder of Rimini Protokoll, turns back time by 60 years, in order to recreate the myth of the Cuban revolution. This time, History isn’t written by Castro and his comrades, but by their grandchildren.

Four of the descendants of the comrades who would change the landscape of Cuba in the sixties mount the stage of the Onassis Stegi to play their ancestors. But the adventures of that older generation assumes another dimension as they meet the hopes of the young people who are now in charge of writing History.

Legends and reality, utopias and dystopias, revolutionaries of a bygone era and young people of today, past and future meet in a courageous piece of documentary theater. In a Cuba which is continuously changing, as answers are urgently sought for contemporary sociopolitical questions, the pre-revolutionary music of Havana is still playing.

A revealing look at Cuba from the 1956 revolution to today.

Read more

Stefan Kaegi sought out over 50 descendants of Cuban revolutionaries in the course of his research for this project. Their response was warmer than anyone could have expected, so he decided to choose four of them to work with further, in order to give a sense of Cuba as seen through their eyes: Daniel (mathematician and cinematographer), Christian (software programmer), Milagro (history student), and Diana (musician).

“Granma” was the name of the American-built yacht that repatriated the Cuban revolutionaries from Mexico in 1956. Later, the boat passed into the possession of Faustino Perez—the central narrator of the performance—who was one of Castro’s leading men, first minister for the nationalization of property and redistribution of wealth, as well as Daniel’s grandfather. “Granma” was also the name that the Castro regime gave to a daily newspaper, a mouthpiece for its politics.

For the needs of the performance, Diana, the granddaughter of a musician who took part in the legendary “Orchestra Maravillas de Florida,” took on the task of teaching trombone to the three other protagonists.

“Granma: Trombones from Havana” had its world premiere at Berlin in the Maxim Gorki Theater in March, 2019 .

Parallel event

Friday 20 December

After performance talk
Moderated by Anestis Azas, director

Credits

  • Concept & Direction

    Stefan Kaegi

  • Stage

    Aljoscha Begrich

  • Video

    Mikko Gaestel

  • Composition

    Ari Benjamin Meyers

  • Sound Design

    Tito Toblerone, Aaron Ghantus

  • Dramaturgy

    Aljoscha Begrich, Yohayna Hernández

  • Costumes

    Julia Casabona

  • Technical Direction & Lighting Design

    Sven Nichterlein

  • Production Management

    Maitén Arns

  • With

    Milagro Álvarez Leliebre, Daniel Cruces-Pérez, Christian Paneque Moreda, Diana Sainz Mena

  • Video Collaboration

    Marta María Borrás

  • Dramaturgical Collaboration

    Ricardo Sarmiento

  • Assistant Director

    Noemi Berkowitz

  • Assistant Stage Design

    Julia Casabona

  • Production Assistants

    Federico Schwindt, Dianelis Diéguez

  • Internship

    Joana Falkenberg (Stage), Ignacia González (Direction), Lenna Stam (Costumes)

  • Touring Management

    Maitén Arns, Federico Schwindt (on tour)

  • Subtitles

    Meret Kündig, Federico Schwindt (on tour)

  • Translation

    Meret Kündig, Franziska Muche, Anna Galt, Marta Vukovic, Adrien Leroux (Panthea)

  • Surtitles translation

    Konstantinos Paleologos

  • Trombone lessons

    Yoandry Argudin Ferrer, Diana Sainz Mena and Rob Gutowski Research Cuba: Residencia Documenta Sur, coordinated by Laboratorio Escénico de Experimentación Social: Maité Hernandéz-Lorenzo (investigadora y periodista), Karina Pino Gallardo (residente), José Ramón Hernández Suárez (residente), Ricardo Sarmiento Ramírez (residente), Taimi Diéguez Mallo (residente) y Miriam E. González Abad (productora).

  • A Production of

    Rimini Protokoll and Maxim Gorki Theater Berlin in coproduction with Emilia Romagna Teatro Fondazione, Festival TransAmériques (Montréal), Kaserne (Basel), Onassis Stegi (Athens), Théatre Vidy (Lausanne), LuganoInscena-Lac (Lugano), Zürcher Theaterspektakel (Zyrich), Festival D'Avignon.

  • Funded by

    the German Federal Cultural Foundation, the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia and the Senate Department for Culture and Europe.

  • In collaboration with

    Goethe Institut Havanna

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