BETON LTD.: ICH KANN NICHT ANDERS

Ich kann nicht anders places the audience in voyeuristic immediate proximity of a devastated scenography that speaks of the apocalyptic, temporariness, provisional housing. However, it is not a world of complete retreat, but rather a hiding place through the cracks of which an outside society full of xenophobia, terrorism and recurring crises invades the seemingly isolated performers. These cracks are in the performers themselves, relatively prominent members of modern society, in which circumstances of isolation bring forth precisely these little perversions; introversion, fascism, sexism, narcissism, misanthropy… No matter how immune to them they think they are, they prove exactly the opposite to themselves and the viewers.
The fragmentary pieces of performance oscillate between serious political topics, apocalyptic crisis and philosophical questions, and degrade into the everyday banalities of washing, eating, and gossiping. They play with different quotes, borrowing them, articulating them and assembling them in a common context in order to be able to express themselves, say something that would go beyond the banality of their lives. The citations go as far as to transform into a method that, in the words of the German literary critic Marcel Reich-Ranicki, “words, words, words,” becomes the basic means of conveying a message. After all, a quote from Marin Luther ends up in the title. All this in order to be able to show the fundamental incapability of the individual to find a clear and meaningful position of action in the partial postmodern world.

Ich kann nicht anders is one of Beton Ltd.’s major hits. Since its premiere in 2016, it has toured several local and international festivals and is one of their most staged performances. In 2021, it entered the Lea Kukovičič’s project Performance Auction House FORSALE, where it was divided into 9 lots and sold at auction. With this sale, the Beton Ltd. collective was joined by a newly created collective of owners of individual lots, who have a common duty to keep the performance alive.

Concept and direction: Beton Ltd.
Performing: Katarina Stegnar, Branko Jordan, Primož Bezjak
Music: Dead Tongues
Set design: sonda4, Toni Soprano
Costumes: Mateja Benedetti
Sound design: Jure Vlahovič
Dramaturgical collaborator: Urška Brodar
Technical director: Andrej Petrovčič
Executive producer: Maja Vižin
Public relations: Tamara Bračič Vidmar
Produced by: Bunker, Ljubljana
Premiere: 26th August 2016

Photo: Toni Soprano Meneglejte

Performance Ich kann nicht anders (2016) by Beton Ltd. was auctioned in August 2021 by Performance Auction House FORSALE in 9 lots.

Owner of lot no. 1 (Props / Object related to injury and pain): Roman Uranjek
Owner of lot no. 3 (Costumes / Sculptures of human existence): Tanja Črnič Oblak
Owner of lot no. 4 (Silences / Stillness of voices): Damjan Ilić
Owner of lot no. 5 (Time / Reality disappearing over 75 minutes): Balkan Express
Owner of lot no. 6 (Tableau Vivant / Death performing): Anonymous owner
Owner of lot no. 9 (Text / All the words of the performance, including words which violate copyright laws): Prešeren Theatre Kranj for The Week of Slovenian Drama

Date

18. 03. 2023
Expired!

Time

21:00 - 22:00

Cost

10€ / 7€

Location

ŠD Tabor