Albanian tales and legends

What if the world were a fairy tale and legends a common cultural resource shared by all? Then we would hear, almost imperceptibly, a woman's voice raised, and songs harmonising with the sounds of music. In this world of marvels, where the sacred and the profane are inseparably linked, Albania is found to exist between truth and legend.

It starts with a song, which gradually gives expression to a woman's feelings. Her voice invites us on a journey, to discover magical places and unfamiliar customs. With her, we discover the Albania of fairy tales, a mysterious country of the imagination, rich in legends.

She tells in turn of the destiny of men, women and children, who live out legendary adventures from another era, in a country that is both very close and very distant.

We hear declarations, verses, phrases; and each word brings us closer to a world of marvels, the world of Albanian stories.

On this journey, where the sacred and profane are intertwined, the chords of a musician's guitar echo with the mysteries and secrets of these tales.

A dramatised reading to touch the emotions and bring to life the universal beauty of Albanian stories and legends.

 

PRODUCTION TEAM

Staging/direction: Zenel Laci

Writing/adaptation: Safet Kryemadhi

Actor: Anila Dervishi

Musician: Afrim Jahja

Sound and lighting: Zenel Laci

Production assistant and media contact: Kate Holman

A FRITLAND THEATRE company production, with the support of l’Espace de Création and Balkan Trafik Festival.

Length of the performance: 40 min. – (2 parts of 20 min.)

 

DIARY OF PERFORMANCES

2 December 2015, 19h30

Le Cercle des Voyageurs

18, rue des Grands Carmes - 1000 Brussels, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

9 December 2015, 18h30

Beursschouwburg

20-28, rue Auguste Orts - 1000 Brussels, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

10 February 2016, 18h

Le Senghor

366, chaussée de Wavre - 1040 Brussels, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

15 - 16 April 2016

Balkan Trafik Festival

Palais des Beaux-Arts

Rue Ravenstein, 23 - 1000 Brussels

Reservation: Tel.: 02 216 34 83

www.balakantrafik.com

 

CONTACTS

PROJECT LEADER

Safet KRYEMADHI

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

+32 (0) 485 86 53 33

DIRECTOR

Zenel LACI

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

+32 (0) 474 26 08 91

MEDIA & PRODUCTION ASSISTANT

Kate HOLMAN

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

+32 (0) 475 24 75 33

PHOTOS

Julian Hills

www.hools.

 

FRITLAND THEATRE COMPANY

The company's story started with the composition of Le plus beau pays du monde (The Most Beautiful Country in the World), a rock-cabaret adaptation of Terres Mortes by Franz Xaver Kroetz. The show was staged in the cellars of an alternative venue in Brussels, the l’Espace du Nord-Ouest, in 2002.

Nain (Dwarf), a monologue, was presented in 2003 in France at the Monastery of Saorge. In 2004, the company produced a new play, Valencia, Princesse du Monde (Valencia, Princess of the World), translated into Portuguese. The play was performed in a number of Portuguese venues (Coimbra, Porto, Lisbon, Tondela and Aveiro).

In 2005, the company created Everything is on the Wall (Atelier Van Praet, Brussels), combining literary and performance art. This cathartic experience called on the spectator to read sentences covering the walls of a workshop. The event directed the company towards more radical artistic alternatives with a political perspective and a performance orientation. The approach called for a widening of the theatrical concept to include a video Les artistes viennois vs le nazisme (Viennese artists aganist nazism) (Louvain-la-Neuve).

In 2010, the company staged Journal d’une femme du Kosovo (Diary of a woman from Kosovo), adapted from the diary kept by the Albanian militant Sevdije Ahmeti during the war in Kosovo. This theatrical performance combined harsh sounds from a guitar, choreography and video projections to highlight the brutality of rape as a weapon of war. The play has been performed in Brussels, Wallonia, Flanders, Kosovo and Albania.

In 2014, the company mounted two original productions: Vivre (Live) and Human Beauty, about the myth of Europe in migrants' imagination, and in 2015 a one-person show: Il était une fois l’Europe (Once upon a time it was Europe). It is now preparing a new show: Fritland Non-Stop 2016.

 

BIOGRAPHIES

Safet KRYEMADHI

Safet Kryemadhi lives in Belgium and has written on geopolitics, the Balkans, literature and the city. His works Balades littéraires en Albanie (2013), Le Voyage en Albanie (2014) and Légendes, Fables et Contes Albanais (2015) are published by Ovadia.

Zenel LACI

Playwright, director and scenographer, Zenel Laci qualified from the Theatrical Studies Centre in Louvain-la Neuve. He completed studies in scenography at the Saint-Luc Higher Institute in Brussels. He also runs theatre workshops. His productions have been performed in Belgium and abroad.

Anila DERVISHI

Anila Dervishi studied dramatic art at the Institute of Fine Arts in Tirana. She has performed in many Albanian theatre productions and films. After moving from Albania to Brussels in 1992, Anila Dervishi pursued her acting career with directors like Xavier Lukomski, Claude Simon, and Claire Gatineau.

Afrim JAHJA

Afrim Jahja studied classical guitar at the Schaerbeek Academy of Music. As a guitarist and harmonica player for more than 30 years, his music has evolved through a variety of groups and combinations in Belgium and abroad. On the Belgian stage he is most often seen performing in a Blues-Rock style.

 

The word can shake mountains

Albanian proverb