Mark Požlep: STRANGER THEN PARADISE

Two years ago, the chiefly visual artist Mark Požlep embarked on what might, at first glance, seem like a rather quaint tour: alongside pianist Igor Feketija they visited a number of retirement homes across the countries of former Yugoslavia. There, they performed for the elderly a set of Yugoslavian music hits from the fifties and sixties of the past century.

Mark first presented Stranger than Paradise in gallery form, for which he received the OHO Group Award in 2016, and is now adapting the project for theatre.

Stranger than Paradise is a documentary performance, something between a concert, a travelogue and a friendly gathering. It speaks of aging, of common and separate fates, of the reestablishment of broken relationships and shattered communities. It speaks of a generation that lived out nearly their entire lives in the former common socialist state, and of one that only experienced it in its greenest youth. It speaks of man and his eternal longing for change, his incredible capacity for creation and destruction. It speaks of Marko as a person, and each one of us as a human being. Stranger than Paradise

The performance is followed by a talk with the authors.

The performance is in Slovene with English surtitles.

65 minutes

Concept: Mark Požlep
Performers: Mark Požlep, Igor Feketija
Dramaturgy and videography: Jure Novak
Set design: Meta Grgurevič
Costume: Dajana Ljubičić
Lighting design, head technician: Grega Mohorčič
Executive production: Barbara Poček
Production: Glej, The Theatre