Everything is on fire, but we’re acting up!

Moment Arts and Culture Association

The 6th International Festival of Independent Performing Arts Prestopi/Crossings

Maribor, 12–20 May 2023

Everything is on fire, but we’re acting up!

May is the time when Moment crosses the threshold of its GT22 Intimate Stage, a time for a quality and exciting international programme of performances and side events in Maribor. It is a time when diverse expressions and mixed genres of theatre intertwine, when creators meet audiences and audiences meet creators.

Our present is in crisis, in a cramp. A financial crisis, a health crisis, an ecological crisis, an energy crisis, a food crisis, a political crisis, a security crisis… A great social crisis. Everything is on fire! Sometimes literally. But we can’t put out fires with theatre. We look for answers, but we find questions.

And there are a lot of questions in Forced Entertainment’s Quizoola! Hosting this collective, which has been reinventing theatre for decades, is surely one of the highlights of this year’s festival. Their second show, Real Magic, about absurd misunderstandings, works tirelessly to find common ground. Forced Entertainment reminds us of the real magic of theatre (and that something is rarely what it seems) and, above all, that being human is, at its core, extremely interesting.

And Crossings are so much more. Festival audience favourites and regular award-winning duo Bert & Nasi with The End. And Ingrid and Lasse from Norway, who redefine duality through movement and music in Panflutes and Paperwork. The Kolektiv Igralke from Rijeka with their performance Grannies (Bakice), where tissues are a must, because you’ll need them for the tears of crying as well as laughter. The French acrobatic burlesque Escape (La Fuite) for the whole family. From home, BetON7, which through music establishes a relationship to the sacred in an urban environment, the documentary Circle (Krog), which tells the story of the remnants and meaning of public spaces, the Godzilla Tribute Band, conceived in punk and in the trenches of redemption, and the elusive attempt to bring everything Under Control (Pod kontrolo). To open and close, a concert programme by Slovenian bands Last Dropout and Funk Fu.

This year’s festival programme of ten performances is curious, interested in human beings and people in relation to each other. The guest clowns, dancers, actresses and musicians all dream of a better world, test visions of the future, tell stories of the past and the present. They are not only looking for solutions within the status quo, but thinking of alternatives. And they take us away from the worries of everyday needs and benefits, at least temporarily.

We invite you to spend this extended week together with us. At performances, concerts and talks in different locations around the city. Where we’ll tell each other everything that’s going on. Where we will be critical of society, theatre, power, conformity and narrow-mindedness. And where all this will be a trigger, a reason and a cause for celebration. We will search for meaning and rejoice in life. Everything is on fire, but we’re acting up!