Daydream House | 2011
Daydream House is the result of an encounter between theatermaker/performer Sanja Mitrovic and architect Laurent Liefooghe. Their work utilises the glass house from Liefooghe’s audio-spatial installation entitled Woonmachine. Developed as an architecture rather then a decor, this construction was conceived at the same time as a “functional” house and a theater-box. This allowed it to serve as the starting point for a new theatre performance based on the docu-tale format which Mitrovic has explored in her previous work (Will You Ever Be Happy Again?, 2008 and A Short History of Crying, 2010)
In order to understand ourselves and the society we live in, it is important to find a common ground we share in our personal and collective lives. A basicthing we all share is – our every day routines. Daydream House uses documentary material from 20th and 21st century (found footage about mortgage crisis and personal stories) as well as extracts of Chekov’s Cherry Orchard to talk
about living through stories about leaving. Maybe it is only in the moment of moving out that a home reveals its true value.
Daydream House explores the tension between real and fictional space. The position of the public constantly shifts: from watching to being watched, from taking distance to being involved, from visitor in a gallery space to an audience member in a theatre surrounding. While zooming in on ordinary, every day, domestic actions and by playing with real time and the power of story-telling, the audience is caught into a paradoxical game in which it gradually moves and takes over the stage.
Because of it precise combination of plot and space, of movement and story, Daydream House slowly and elegantly tricks the audience into the all too human desire for reality. – Christophe Van Gerrewey, 2001
Tour
19-05-2011 premiere: Festival a/d Werf, 2011concept & direction :
Laurent Liefooghe, Sanja Mitrovic
text, performance :
Sanja Mitrovic
architecture :
Laurent Liefooghe
text, dramaturgical advice :
Maya van den Heuvel-Arad
light design :
Laurent Liefooghe, Sanja Mitrovic
sound design :
Evelien van den Broek
intership dramaturgy :
Alexander Chu
special thanks :
Renée Copraij, Christophe Van Gerrewey
production :
Huis aan de Werf/Utrecht
co-production :
Stand Up Tall Productions/Amsterdam, Mokum v.z.w./Brussels
production-coordination :
Helga Baert