Say you want a Revolution?

by Rafael Gallegos

Daily Lobo

The revolution is not over just yet -- this weekend is the grand finale of the Third Annual Revolutions International Theatre Festival.

The main events are Daniel Stein of the Dell'Arte School of Physical Theatre performing "Windowspeak" at Theatre X and Jednotka (Unit) from the Czech Republic presenting "Passenger" at Rodey Theatre.

I recently had a chat with one of the members of Jednotka. In keeping with the communal spirit of Jednotka, this person did not wish to give a name.

Daily Lobo: What is the story about?

Jednotka: The story is open in a way that the audience can read it differently. Basically, we follow the story of a particular character who is suddenly brought on his journey, on his way. There is a strong aspect of a death, which is taking him on a trip. She is following him on his trip, like a guide. The point is that we think death is always around us -- it can happen anytime, anywhere, even now.

DL: You are coming here from the Czech Republic, actually traveling. How did this affect the group and the piece?

J: We are a former East European communist or socialist state. What we really remember is that to travel is really complicated and bizarre.

DL: So the theater of the airport, traveling is the foundation?

J: We are very influenced by the theater of the real. We have a lot of fun observing normal people. They don't act, but they are the best actors because they don't act.

DL: Can you talk about the training and the company?

J: We are not a typical theater company with a director and a technician. We all do almost everything. We do not emphasize who wrote or came up with this idea. We always say this is a performance of Unit. It's a collective -- a mixture of different artists.

DL: How do you get your funding?

J: We were able to receive some grants to make the shows.

DL: From the government?

J: Yeah. It's the ministry of culture from the city of Prague. This performance was created as a site-specific event, then we remade the performance to be a show you can travel with.

DL: How does it change when you go to other spaces?

J: A lot. The story is the same, but I think it's a totally different feeling.

DL: What about the hierarchy of working with other people. You say that it's a real socialist atmosphere, but certainly there has to be some element of structure.

J: Yeah, that's a big problem in our company. I really believe that everybody is self-responsible. We are not that kind of company, with the director, the boss and everybody is doing what he says. I don't believe in this. We don't believe in this. We believe in a collective feeling.

DL: Why do you perform? Why do you create?

J: It's a matter of obsession; all of us have this call of nature.

Jednotka's "Passenger" plays Thursday, Friday and Saturday, at 7:30 p.m., at Rodey Theatre. Call 277-4569 for tickets. Opening night performances are "Pay What You Can" and others are $10.