Yas queen! Our staging of Henry Purcell’s 1692 semi-opera “The Fairy Queen” as a danced opera places the dancers in the main roles and jettisons the bloated sense of spectacle and the vaguely Shakespearean plot of the original performance. By staging a “Fairy Queen” with a minimum of costume and set changes, we intend to foreground the inner qualities of Purcell’s score, and to create a flamboyantly kinesthetic response to its peculiar harmonies, rhythms and lyrics.
The starting point for our staging is the original forest setting, which we regard as a site of freedom, creativity and fabulous self-fashioning. We take a similar path to that of the countercultural group The Radical Faeries, who saw such natural settings as highly favorable for the exploration and expansion of gender identity and sexuality.
“The Fairy Queen” is a a collaboration of three Bernese cultural institutions: the Joshua Monten Dance Company, Die Freitagsakademie and the Ensemble tempo d’affetto. After the premiere in Bern in spring 2027, the production will go on tour to the Stadttheater Biel and Stadttheater Solothurn.
PERFORMANCES
24-26 April 2027 — Dampfzentrale Bern (CH) – premiere
20 August 2027 — Barocktage Solothurn (CH)
21 August 2027 — Stadttheater Biel (CH)
CHOREOGRAPHY
Joshua Monten
DANCE
Bryan Doisy
Gianmarco Martini Zani
Larissa de Villa
Jack Wignall
LIGHT DESIGN
Mirjam Berger
APPRENTICE
Romain Robert
COPRODUCTION
Dampfzentrale Bern
PRODUCED BY
Tough Love
WE GRATEFULLY ACKNOWLEDGE FINANCIAL SUPORT FROM THE FOLLOWING ORGANIZATIONS
Kultur Stadt Bern
SWISSLOS / Kanton Bern
Burgergemeinde Bern
GVB Kulturstiftung
Berner Kantonalbank
Landis & Gyr Stiftung
Ernst Göhner Stiftung
