Kienberger comically plays off childhood memories - Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune 10/26/05

The other night, at the Chopin Theatre's festival of European solo performance known as "I-Fest," I caught a Swiss actor and musician working mostly in German and a little bit in English, in a show called "I Am So Alone." Being an ugly American barely conversant in English, let alone languages beyond, I had doubts about being there. Yet there was no problem. There was no "language problem."

The wide-eyed, frizzy-haired and bespectacled performer, Jurg Kienberger, handed the multinational Chopin crowd a wonderful 90 minutes. Encountering Kienberger, a man of enormous and delicate comic style - he did everything from "That's Amore" to Comedian Harmonists-style impressions of jazz band instruments - was like meeting the Swiss answer to Victor Borge, or a spiritual cousin of Peter Schickele, a.k.a. P.D.Q. Bach. I hope he returns soon. Kienberger grew up the son of a hotel owner in the Swiss Alps. With a dazed smile recalling Andy Kaufman's, he played two roles based on traveling musicians he knew as a child. One was that of a (fictional) aged pianist given to coughing spells, requiring sips of tea while playing - a sight in itself. In the other role, the pianist's nephew, he proved a tiger on the accordion, a purveyor of such global kitsch classics as "That's Amore," and a vocalist of high, dry falsetto distinction.

The other half of Saturday's bill repeats this Friday. It is a 60-minute compression of the Marguerite Duras novel "The Lover," performed in English by the Lithuanian actress Birute Mar.

Like Kienberger, the moon-faced, red-haired Mar has toured her solo act extensively in Europe . Her version of the Duras story, in which a 15-year-old French girl enters into an affair with a Chinese man in 1930s Indochina , features a splendid sound design, full of whispers and mysterious reverberations of memory and desire. Beyond the sound element, the stagecraft is simple. Across three panels dangling from the theater ceiling, the video-projected image of a cigarette's smoke drifts horizontally, from left to right. Later, Mar lights a cigarette, and the result is a mirror image of the video projection.

It's not a piece of wide dynamic range; rather, Mar sustains a mood of romantic yearning and loss. Friday, she'll repeat "The Lover" on a bill including a French-language solo, "Music Hall," performed by Marie-Sophie Ferdane.

This Saturday at 7 p.m. the Chopin hosts the German soloist Claudia Wiedemer in "Grete" on a bill with Janusz Stolarski's "Behold the Man," in Polish. At 3 p.m. Sunday, Lidiya Danylchuk's "The White Butterflies" from the Ukraine tops a bill with a repeat performance of "Behold the Man. "

After Saturday's opening performance, Chopin Theatre owner Zygmunt Dyrkacz thanked the audience for coming, invited everyone down to the Chopin's beautiful basement-level lounge for a nice spread, and spoke about the instability of contemporary global politics. It is hard, he said, to predict which countries will remain allies and which will not.

Citing with understandable pride the stylistic array of talent in the first annual "I-Fest," he concluded: "At least today we are friends."



European Avant-Garde - Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun Times 10/14/05

Chicago 's Chopin Theatre, located at 1543 W. Division, proudly waves the banner of everything that is new in theater and imported from the Old World . It has just announced a one-week event, the I-Fest (as in "International Festival"), running Oct. 22-30.

A showcase of international solo performances, it promises to put "social misfits, outcasts or perhaps even rebels" in the spotlight. There will be two pieces on each program, variously performed in English, German, Ukrainian, French and Polish. Among them is "The Lover," in which a Lithuanian actress stars in a French play translated into English, and tells the story of a love affair between a Chinese man and a French girl in Vietnam.



I-Fest - Chicago Reader 10/20/05

"I" stands for individuality in this showcase of solo performers from Europe . Scheduled artists include Birute Mar from Lithuania in The Lover, by Marguerite Duras; Jurg Kienberger from Switzerland in I Am So Alone, by Claudia Carigiet and Kienberger; Lidiya Danylchuk from Ukraine in The White Butterflies, by Vasyl Stefanyk; Marie Sophie from France in Music Hall, by Jean-Luc Lagarce; Claudia Wiedemer from Germany in Grete, by Goethe; and Janusz Stolarski from Poland in Behold the Man, by Nietzsche. Through 10/30: schedule follows. Fri 10/28: The Lover (in English), 7 PM ; Music Hall (in French), 8:30 PM. Sat 10/29: Grete (in German), 7 PM ; Behold the Man (in Polish), 9 PM. Sun 10/30: The White Butterflies (in Ukranian), 3 PM ; Behold the Man (in Polish), 5 PM. Chopin Theatre, 1543 W. Division, 773-278-1500. $10-$20 per evening (includes between-shows reception).



I-Fest - TimeOut Chicago 10/27/05

Chopin Theatre presents its first fest of international solo performers. (Most perform in their native languages; check listings). Fri 29th at 7pm : The Lover Birute Mar performs Marguerite Duras's tale of the tumultous love between a French woman and a Chinese man (in English). Fri 28th at 830pm: Music Hall In Jean-Luc Lagarce's work, Marie Sophie plays an actor who remains onstage after the show's done, giving us a backstage peek into her life (in French). Sat 29 at 7pm : Grete Claudia Wiedemer performs J.W. Goethe's work about being a child-killing mother and other female outcasts (in German). Sat 29 at 9pm : Behold the Man Janusz Stolarski becomes Friederich Nietzsche, as depicted in his autobiography Ecce Homo (in Polish). Sun 30 at 3pm : The White Butterflies Using Ukrainian folk songs, Lidiya Danylchuk reflects on love and suffering in Vasyl Stefanyk's work (in Ukrainian). Sun 30 at 5pm Behold the Man (see Sat 29).



I-Fest - TimeOut Chicago 10/20/05

Chopin Theatre presents its first fest of international solo performers. (Most perform in their native languages; check listings). Sat 22nd 7pm : The Lover Birute Mar performs Marguerite Duras's tale of the tumultous love between a French woman and a Chinese man (in English). Sat 22nd 9pm : I Am So Alone Jurg Keinberger recounts his memories of growing up in a grand old resort hotel in the Swiss Alps (in German). Sun 30 at 3pm : The White Butterflies Using Ukrainian folk songs, Lidiya Danylchuk reflects on love and suffering in Vasyl Stefanyk's work (in Ukrainian). Sun 30 at 5pm I Am So Alone (see Sat 22).



Flying Solo - NewCity Chicago Magazine 10/18/05



From the Producers: Chopin Theatre presents its first annual I-Fest from October 22 through October 30, a festival of international solo performances featuring everything from musical theater to drama and performers from France, Germany, Switzerland, Lithuania, Poland and the Ukraine. "This country has become focused on religion and baseball, so I think it's nice for people to see something different," remarks Chopin owner and festival organizer Zygmunt Dyrkacz. "The division between the United States and Europe is widening, because Europe is much more diversified. It will be useful to see [productions from] more than one country or state."

I- Fest is a first annual festival of international solo performances celebrating Individuality. It emphasizes the mysterious uniqueness of the individual independent of group associations usually targeted by politics, media and spiritual enterprises. Because performers are more in control of the subject and style, I–Fest , as it develops, will become a global showcase of social misfits, outcasts or perhaps even rebels (for example, a Lithuanian actress performing in English presents a French play, about a love affair between a Chinese man and a French girl set in Vietnam).

I-Fest 2005 is partially supported by Consulate General de France; Consulate General of Ukraine in Chicago; Goethe-Institut Chicago; Pro Helvetia Arts Council of Switzerland; Swiss Benevolent Society of Chicago; Walkabout Theater Company; and Wroclawskie Spotkania Teatrow Jednego Aktora.


PERFORMANCES

9pm Oct 29th; 5p Oct 30th – Behold the Man by Friedrich Nietzsche of Germany. In Polish. Just weeks before his final collapse into madness, Nietzsche set out to compose his autobiography, and Behold the Man remains one of the most intriguing yet bizarre examples of the genre ever written. In the this extraordinary work, Nietzsche traces his life, work and development as a philosopher, examines the heroes he has identified with, struggled against and then overcome - Schopenhauer, Wagner, Socrates, Christ - and predicts the cataclysmic impact of his "forthcoming revelation of all values". Both self-celebrating and self-mocking, penetrating and strange, Behold the Man gives the final, definitive expression to Nietzsche's main beliefs and is in every way his last testament.

Janusz Stolarski is an actor and director born in Poznan in 1962. He has trained as a professional actor under the Polish masters Zbigniew Cynkutis and Miroslaw Kocur. He has participated in many international festivals and received awards for his monodramas including Grand Prix Minsk International Festival of One Man Plays, Grand Prix Wroclaw Festival of Short Plays and Critic's Award and Grand Prix at the One Man Plays Festival of Torun.