The second annual edition of AMPLIFIER did not lag behind the first one, bringing 100 well-meaning artists from 11 countries to perform their best cabaret and street pieces on the topic of freedom.
Traditional festival prize of this edition went to Divadlo Pod Palmovkou HAŃBA! Ariel Doron
The second annual edition of AMPLIFIER did not lag behind the first one, bringing 100 well-meaning artists from 11 countries to perform their best cabaret and street pieces on the topic of freedom.
The most resounding name was the play THAT IS FLAWLESS by Radošiná Naive Theatre, returning to Banská Štiavnica after 35 years. The performance of Zuzka Kronerová with the GUnaGU theatre and their cabaret ACTRESSES was just as unique. In the cycle of comebacks of popular cabaret duos, the great Jakub Nvota & Kamil Žiška met on stage again after 8 years. Their dada cabaret KOBODOZOLO was a homage to the 100th anniversary of the creation of the dada movement and Cabaret Voltaire in Zürich.
The foreshadowing of the 50th anniversary of the occupation in 1968 could be found in the unique mobile exhibition of cartoons in the streets called DEADHEADS and the special happening JOURNEY TO (UN)FREEDOM on a Škoda 706 RTO Cabrio retro-bus resonated strongly with the festival-goers.
We introduced Theatre Líšeň from Brno with their matrioshka tragicomedy PUTIN SKIING, which was performed in their own military tent. We awarded three AMPLION ARGENTUM festival awards. In the New Cabaret category, the winners were Theatre Under Palmovka from Prague for their play 1000 THINGS THAT PISS ME OFF, in the Street art, the award went to the Polish street band HAŃBA! from Krakow and in the Socially Engaged Production category, the winner was the Israeli performer Ariel Doron with his war puppetry PLASTIC HEROES. The most popular street performance took place on the walls of the Old Castle in the form of the vertical dance of the air acrobats from the Mattatoio Sospeso ensemble from Italy, performing SKY LOVERS. Names such as Andrej Bán, Dušan Ondrušek, Patrik Dubovský, István Kollai and others took part in discussions. For the viewers, we launched a system of online ticket sales and a central ticket sales point directly on site.
The theme of the festival was reflected in the installation Anti-Exclamation Point as well as the slogan “Let culturedness for freedom be well heard!” The attendance grew by one third and so did the team of volunteers. Tired, but happy, we moved onto the next edition.
