Klosterhof

Dublin Theatre Festival: Klosterhof – Project Arts Centre, Dublin

Creators: Iwona Nowacka and Janek Turkowski

Dublin is a city that has seen much in the line of building works, regeneration and change over the past few years. Every new brick and LUAS line track that has been laid down builds upon centuries of history. Buildings gone, lives lived and passed. The history that is around us every day can be fascinating. When living in the city though few of us think to pay attention to these changes. Even fewer of us (if any really) would think to record over three hundred hours of footage of life just outside their window.

Theatre makers Nowacka and Turkowski live in one of the few buildings in their city in Poland to survive 1944 and the devastation of war. They decided to turn their cameras on their neighbourhood. In doing so they have collected over three hundred hours of footage that has been pieced together to be placed in a time capsule to be opened in their year 2109. However, this footage, which hopes to capture and preserve, has not been edited down to present only the dramatic moments. They have carefully avoided creating a staged atmosphere and have stuck closely to the desire to be naturalistic and to present their footage as is. Although this is very interesting it does mean that 14 minutes of the production is taken up with footage of contractors taking up paving slabs and replacing tiles on a roof.

Klosterhof is probably philosophically interesting and we can only wonder what will be made of the time capsule in the year 2109; will it feature in the Dublin Theatre Festival? Nowacka and Turkowski are enjoyable companions through this journey and their commentary is often sweet, honest and touching. There is a particularly good section that focuses on the story of a homeless man whose life is unexpectedly changed by the act of filming.

For some, the ideas surrounding Klosterhof will draw them in and it is important to note that this is a very pleasant viewing experience. However, there are many that will not find the appeal in Klosterhof. It is experimental and unusual. Once again one can question if Klosterhof was really well placed at the Theatre Festival, or if like many other recent productions should have been a part of the recent Fringe Festival.

Image: Contributed