Resistance!
Youth Festival of Modern European History

RESISTANCE! – Youth Festival of Modern European History is a European performing arts project taking place in Portugal, Italy, France, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, and the Netherlands. The project is dedicated to reflecting on the causes and consequences of the authoritarian and totalitarian regimes that have marked modern European history. In Portugal’s case, the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of April 25th will be the motto for the creation of the performance.

 

In Portugal, RESISTANCE! has Teatro Circo de Braga EM SA as an associate partner and is being developed in the context of the preparations for the Portuguese Capital of Culture. RESISTANCE! has the institutional support of the Mário Soares and Maria Barroso Foundation and its partner is the Festival Polí­tica, which aims to promote civic participation, the defense of human rights, and the fight against abstention among young people.

 

Objectives

To foster transnational historical perspectives and new methodologies for teaching history through the performing arts, with the aim of:

• Commemorate important historical turning points and political changes in the 20th century in Europe;
• Stimulate young people’s interest in researching a transnational European history in order to develop a European identity;
• Promote the values of an open democratic society and defend freedom, justice, equality and fundamental human rights.

The festival lasts twenty-four months and includes a total of eight international activities: one workshop and seven festivals, six locally and one online.

Six cultural institutions are partners in this initiative. Each partner organizes a youth theater festival in their country where they host and present the artistic performances of the others and produce their own show in partnership with a local organization, in this case Festival Política. In an itinerant format, the performances then go on tour in each of the countries participating in the RESISTANCE! project.

Each performance lasts 30 minutes, followed by a debate with the young audience, in order to encourage reflection on these themes and knowledge about historical events in their own countries, while at the same time discovering similarities and differences with the partner countries.

In Portugal, RESISTANCE! will be particularly important, as the 2024 edition coincides with the 50th Anniversary of April 25, a theme that will be the motto for the performative creation of the group of young Portuguese.

In Portugal, RESISTANCE! will take place in Braga, on May 2, 3 and 4, as part of the 2024 edition of the Festival Polí­tica, an annual festival that takes place in different Portuguese cities, organized by the NGO Associação Isonomia, which aims to promote civic participation, the defence of the rights of the people and the rights of the people.

 

Themes by country

The Netherlands: The Decolonization Process,

Czech Republic: The Prague Spring of 1968,

France: May 68,

Portugal: The Carnation Revolution of 1974,

Slovenia: The Disintegration of Yugoslavia,

Italy: Resistance and Revenge.

 

Project partners

Gledališče Glej (Slovenia)

NDM Ateliér (Czech Republic)

delleAli Teatro (Italy)

Het Stichting Theaterschip (Netherlands)

Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3 University (France)

 

Associate partner

Teatro Circo de Braga EM SA (Portugal)

 

Schedule of performances at the Festival Política

Venue: Braga Youth Center – Youth Hostel

May 2nd

17h30 – 18h30: Performance “Lost” by the group from Italy

21h30-22h30: Performance “Breaking News” by the group from Portugal

May 3rd

17h00 – 18h00: Performance “Resistance Redux” by the group from the Netherlands

18h30 – 19h30: Performance “You are what you eat” by the group from Slovenia

May 4th

15h00 – 16h00: Performance “When Spring is Over” by the group from the Czech Republic

16h30 – 17h30: Performance “Revolution is a sexually transmitted infection” by the group from France

 

Booking tickets (free)

Admission is free and you can book your ticket here. All the performances feature Portuguese Sign Language.

 

Performance synopses:

• Breaking News (Portugal)

What is documentary or fiction? What has changed since April 25? In this media show, the audience is invited to debate which fundamental rights promised by democracy have yet to be fulfilled.

Authors and performers Diana Silva, Filipa Cardoso, Jael Cohen

Mentors Nuno Preto, Andreia Martins

Video Susana Lage, Diana Silva, Filipa Cardoso, Jael Cohen

Production Teatro Circo de Braga EM, S.A.

Historical Background: Freedom Day is celebrated in Portugal on April 25th. This date commemorates the revolt of the Portuguese military, who on April 25, 1974, carried out a military coup d’état, putting an end to the dictatorial regime of the Estado Novo, which was led by António de Oliveira Salazar. The Armed Forces Movement, made up of soldiers who had taken part in the Colonial War and university students, had the support of the Portuguese population. The symbol of April 25 is the carnation, the flower that the population placed on the arms of the military on that day. The celebration of Freedom Day in Portugal, also known as the day of the Carnation Revolution, recalls the importance of freedom in the country.

• Lost (Italy)

To think about history is to think about ourselves. One eye looks at the outside world, the other at the depths within. That, that is the Black Eye. In an endless cycle of inside and outside, of being, not being, becoming, surviving, the performers move through the space of this show. They follow defined paths and, little by little, lose themselves in the search for Memory as it inexorably unfolds.

Authors and performers Ginevra Balestrini, Alessandro Battaglia, Jonas Gabriel Beretta, Francesco Calamia, Aya Chibate, Elisa D’Angelo, Sofia D’Angelo, Simone Frisenda, Filippo Sciolette

Mentor Francesca Assi

Artistic supervision Alessandra Anzaghi

Production delleAli Teatro

• Resistance Redux (Netherlands)

The performance presents a visual, musical and physical interpretation of the Moluccan experience in the Netherlands. In fifteen minutes, the young actors guide the audience through this history and the development of how we perceive this history. The past of the Moluccans is still sensitive in the present, even if many Dutch citizens are not fully aware of it. The young people researched this past and spoke to first, second and third generation Dutch-Molucan people, the last of whom was the same age as them. Very different conversations both in terms of the context in which they were collected and the levels of emotion. Many of these stories and the feelings that accompany them were new to the project participants, who tried to understand the feelings of an entire population that was unheard of. After this research, they tried to figure out how to relate to this information and established their own personal connection with a story that they now realized was shared. All this led the young people and their mentor to create an energetic performance, influenced by Moluccan cultural elements, which reveals a wide variety of perspectives.

Authors and performers Olivier Schulenburg, Thirza Nijsink, Nutsa Lomsadze

Mentor and director Fiona Kelatow

Artistic supervisor Chris de Vries

Production Het Stichting Theaterschip

• You are what you eat (Slovenia)

This show is a veritable compendium of rebellions. From the most banal to the most critical in the context of the former Yugoslavia. It’s full of both rebels and those who don’t rebel. And also those who resist so much that rebellion no longer makes sense. Or it simply shows that we really are what we eat – literally and metaphorically.

Authors and performers Ajda Gramc, Anika Katušić Kocbek, Iza Lesjak, Zigi Omerzel, Laura Prajs, Eva Remi Reponj, Tia Rozman, Elis Seyto, Maruša Freya Voglar

Mentors Anja Pirnat, Tatjana Peršuh, Isa Gardien, Nina Pertot Weis

Artistic supervision Anja Pirnat

Production Gledališče Glej

Artistic supervisor Chris de Vries

Production Het Stichting Theaterschip

• When Spring is Over (Czech Republic)

The historical events surrounding the Prague Spring in 1968 are the starting point for this performance. From the beginning, we refined and narrowed down this theme dramaturgically, and the sociological research and preparation of the mentors had a more specific starting point: the act of resistance of Jan Palach, a university student who committed suicide by self-immolation in January 1969, in protest against the occupation by Warsaw Pact troops. The result is a twenty-minute performance that uses and quotes authentic opinions from sociological research and also reflects the attitudes of the participants – the actors. It metaphorically captures the feelings of liberation and freedom associated with the movement around the Prague Spring. It takes on the personality of Jan Palach and the significance of his act then, during the Velvet Revolution before the collapse of the Soviet Union (1989), and now. It looks at his deed from different angles and asks a question that is an excellent starting point for an intergenerational discussion: Was Jan Palach really a hero? What is his legacy? What would we be willing to sacrifice for freedom and democracy?

Authors and performers Klára Pavlištíková, Klára Müllerová, David Zbořil, Kateřina Szopová, Sára Voleníková, Sára Stoklasová, Daniel Dudek, Johana Ferfecká, Tereza Schwanová, Zlata Palkovská, Karolína Balážová, Vendula Holčáková.

Mentors Radana Otipková, Vít Roleček

Artistic supervision Daniela Jirmanová

Production National Moravian-Silesian Theatre

• Revolution is a sexually transmitted infection (France)

Five young women discuss the education and heritage they have received from previous generations in terms of sexuality and the transition to adulthood, and decide to question them in order to invent their own form of resistance to this legacy.

Authors and performers Pauline Auzuret, Ninon Cluzeau, Sandrella Esso, Judith Hassine, Lugh Müller, Elsa Trehen

Mentors Laurent Berger

Production PAUL VALÉRY UNIVERSITY MONTPELLIER 3