Productions

Told by two voices in lyrical prose and by the characters’ dialogues and songs, “Under Milk Wood” is the cyclical tale of a spring day in the Welsh town of Llareggub and of its odd inhabitants. Each encounter offers confessions, conjurations and the small, mundane secrets of life. Thomas described time as a constant opponent, and his longing for innocence lay in a “non-awareness of time”. In Llareggub, life and death share a world.

Dekolta’s Handwerk installed Dylan Thomas’ unusual intermedial texture in a disused salesroom. To this day, “Under Milk Wood” is attributed to the audio drama genre, an attribution that disregards the performance that ensues from the differing dramaturgies. Using figures, implants and instruments, this experiment developed a pictorial and tonal language that enriched the bilingual German-English text with adequate vocabulary. A “dialectic of the senses” dissects the depths of the textual structures that become a projection space for fantasies and memories.

In “Under Milk Wood” we send our visitors on a voyage to experience the dreamt and distorted images of reality and memory that are registered in human collective memory, and which Thomas sought to capture in the lyrical language of his creation.

Performance: Noemi Fischer, Florentin Groll, Barbara Lehner,
Gina Mattiello, Ruei-Ran
Music: Ruei-Ran Wu, Jörg Ulrich Krah
Conception, Staging, Setting: Jan Jedenak
Dramaturgy: Elisa Weingartner, Jan Jedenak
Dramaturgy Assistance: Noemi Fischer
Costume, Staging, Setting: Daniela Tidl
Light and Sound: Nikolaus Granbacher
Sound recording: Fabio Hofer
Aroma: Yogesh Kumar
Production: Peter Ardmar, Elisa Weingartner
Graphics and Marketing: Peter Ardmar
Photo: Bernhard Hochreiner

Special thanks to Gordana Crnko, Bernhard Hochreiner, Fabio Hofer,
Daniel Kovalenko, Andreas Niederndorfer Raphael Sikora and Clara Trischler

Supported by Municipal Department 7 of the City of Vienna – Cultural Affairs

German adaption rights through Erich Fried, Desch-Verlag.

Duration: 60 minutes
Premiere 2010

Trailer

In a time after the Apocalypse, man struggles through life in a dark and hostile environment. His dreams, fuelled by a longing for a better world, brings forth sceneries with bizarre creatures that take possession of his consciousness. Mastering the forces of nature has always been a dream of mankind. Fulfilling this desire has consequences. As creator he has to take on responsibility for his actions and creatures, even if they turn against him. Many of his creations escape, are irreversible, impossible to recapture.

Experimenting with the theatricality of chemical processes, this project extends the genres of object- and physical theatre by means of visual arts and makes reactive matter and manoeuvrable materials interact with a performer. A narrative without words, based on gesture/motion and atmospheric noises and sounds, deals with the genesis of a virtual world and its consequences. Fascinating visual theatre with stunning chemical reactions.

Performance: Barbara Lehner/ Music: Richard Eigner, Martin Riedler
Conception, Staging, Setting & Light: Jan Jedenak
Costumes: Daniela Tidl/Production and Marketing: Peter Ardmar, Elisa Weingartner
Dramaturgy: Elisa Weingartner, Marianne Vejtisek
Choreography support: Rotraud Kern
Photo: Angela Bedekovic

in Co-Production with dreizurdritten, LILARUM Puppet Theatre Vienna

Supported by Municipal Department 7 of
the City of Vienna – Cultural Affairs and SKE (austromechana)

Duration: 45 minutes
Premiere: 2012

Trailer

Inspired by Guy de Maupassants fictitious diary “Le Horla” Séance invokes the invisible by means of motivic minimalist sequences. In the spotlight moments of the past springing from some mind lost in lunacy freeze accompanied by sinistre recordings of sound. Playing a game with the haze of light and unsettled perception Séance, between light and shadow, tries to catch the uncanny presence of what is absent.

Performance, Set Design, Conception: Jan Jedenak
Artistic Mentoring: Florian Feisel/
Sound Design: Maximilian Leistikow, Jan Jedenak
Photo: Peter Ardmar

This production won 2015 the Fritz-Wortelmannpreis of the German Puppetry Department Fidena and the city of Bochum for the best professional offspring.

Touring history: 19. Int. Figurentheater Festival Erlangen (GER), Int. Figurentheaterfestival Imaginale (GER), Westflügel Leipzig (GER), Fidena Festival Bochum (GER), Theaterfestival figura Baden (CH), Int. Figurentheaterfestival Blickwechsel Magdeburg (GER), Unidram Potsdam (GER), Jerusalem Puppet Festival (ISR)

Supported by the Department of puppetry at the State University HMDK Stuttgart.

Duration: 20 minutes
Premiere: 2015

Trailer

Inspired by the mythological gure of the Trickster and the fairground booth, Jan Jedenak involves the audience in a dodgy game of throwing and shooting. A game who’s aim is transformation, the desire for manipulation and the responsibility of the
audience. They are invited to attend the skinning of multiple personalities, become the
wirepuller of the event, and perhaps encounter the strangeness in their own thoughts and desires.

Performance, Stage and Costume Design: Jan Jedenak
Directing: Florian Feisel
Music: Morgan Daguenet
Mentoring in Dance: Sonia Franken
Dramaturgical & Conceptual Mentoring: Jonas Klinkenberg
Light Design: Florian Feisel, Jan Jedenak
Graphics and Marketing: Peter Ardmar, Sophie Uli Ulrich
Photo: Thilo Neubacher

Touring history: FITZ! Theater animierter Formen Stuttgart, 20. international Figurentheaterfestival Erlangen, Lindenfels Westflügel Leipzig, LILARUM Vienna, Schaubude Berlin, Commedia Futura Hanover, Fidena Festival Bochum, Figurentheaterfestival Blickwechsel Magdeburg

In cooperation with FITZ! Stuttgart, Schaubude Berlin,
West Flügel Leipzig, LILARUM Vienna
Supported by the department of Cultural Affairs of the city of Stuttgart and the Department of puppetry at the State University HMDK Stuttgart.

Duration: 60 minutes
Premiere: 2017

Trailer

Press

“Give them pleasure. The same pleasure they have when they wake up from a nightmare.” ― Alfred Hitchcock

Fears and fear accompany us always and everywhere – often unnoticed. Our everyday life is full of decisions that are connected to fears. Fears of our childhood are often better remembered than we are aware of our own personal fears right now. Are you a fearful person? What are you afraid of? What does fear mean to you? When was the last time you thought about your fear? What about nightmares? Do you like nightmares?

Jedenak and Klinkenberg invite you to engage with the topic of fear and to trace the presence of this phenomenon in everyday, personal, social and political contexts. Experiments, discussions and workshops prepare you for an overnight stay in Westflügel – a night in which nightmares may occur. An immersive fear lab experimenting with psychological experiments and participative role-play to confront you with your very own abysses and distorted images. A night in the old ballroom, between dreams and reality The focus is not to be scared, but rather to connect to fear and to observe what this fear really is.

a participative Installation of 12 hours
by Jan Jedenak and Jonas Klinkenberg

Gefördert durch die Kulturstiftung des Freistaates Sachsen. Diese Maßnahme wird mitfinanziert durch Steuermittel auf der Grundlage des vom Sächsischen Landtag beschlossenen Haushaltes.

Three players fantasize their own absence. Inspired by the aesthetics of old post mortem
photography they question their own disappearance using a puppet, masks and other
objects. An attempt to summon the undescribable and unimaginable. A search for inner
hidden places. A reference to the otherworldly of the visible world. A dialogue with the
unconsciousness.

Performance: Anne Brüssau, Gilda Coustier, Sonia Franken / Direction: Jan Jedenak/ Music: Julian Siffert / Dramaturgy: Jonas Klinkenberg / Puppet & Masks: Janusz Debinski / Costume: Judith Schöntag / Stage design: Jan Jedenak / Lightning design: Marius Alsleben, Jan Jedenak / Graphic design, PR & Marketing: Peter Ardmar

A production by Jan Jedenak in coproduction with the FITZ! Theater of animated forms Stuttgart, Schaubude Berlin and LILARUM Vienna

Supported by the Cultural Office of the City of Stuttgart and the Landesverband Freie Tanz- und Theaterschaffende Baden-Württemberg e.V. by the Ministry of Science, Research and Arts of the State of Baden-Württemberg Germany and Fonds Darstellende Künste E.V. from the funds of the federal government commissioner for culture and media.

The Research on this project was supported by the Fond Darstellende Künste e.V. in 2018 with the topic “Thanatos Archiv”.

Trailer

“Obscene” describes the all-too-visible, which one should refuse to look at and should therefore only be ob scaena outside the scene / stage. This performative installation directs the viewer’s gaze to an isolated human body in a terrarium. A body that presents itself for the view from the outside in order to make itself available for the phantasies of the viewer. The glass creates a tension between extreme isolation and transparent closeness. Using a cupping system, this body invites you to communicate through the glass through the bare skin. In the interplay of imagination and haptics, the sensual exchange leaves an imprint on the bodies without them actually ever touching each other.

Developed in July 2020 as part of “The Temple – A Walk-In Vision” of the West Flügel Leipzig

artistic direction: Jonas Klinkenberg

Concept & performance: Jan Jedenak

outside eye & artistic advice: Li Kemme

Trailer

„One day this kid will find something in his mind and body and soul
that makes him hungry. (…) One day this kid will do something
that causes men (…) to call for his death.“
– Untitled (One Day This Kid…) by David Wojnarowicz

The mandragora (common mandrake) is a poisonous medicinal plant from the nightshade family which has a history of ritual use. Because of its root’s special shape, which resembles the human figure, magical properties have been attributed to it.
This staging is based on an exploration of discrimination, experiences of violence and othering of homosexuals. For Mandragora, Jan Jedenak is working for the first time with the renowned “King of Physical Theater” (The Scotsman Newspaper) Al Seed from Scotland. In this work Jedenak expands the aesthetic means and narrative methods of puppet theater through body and movement techniques of physical theater.

Concept & performance: Jan Jedenak • Direction: Al Seed • Dramaturgy: Jonas Klinkenberg • Music: Julian Siffert • Set design: Heinrich Hesse, Jan Jedenak • Light design: Nadja Weber • Acrobatic Coaching: Andrew Scordilis • Outside eye: Li Kemme • Poster: Peter Ardmar

A production by Jan Jedenak (janjedenak.de) in coproduction with the FITZ Stuttgart – Theater animierter Formen and the studiobühne Köln (studiobuehnekoeln.de). Funded by the cultural department of the city of Stuttgart & the Landesverband Freie Tanz- und Theatererschaffende Baden-Württemberg e.V. with funds from the Ministry for Science, Research and Art of the State of Baden-Württemberg and Fonds Darstellende Künste e.V. from funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media within the framework of NEUSTART KULTUR