Victory Over The Sun

FIRST ACT

White with black. Walls white, floor black. Two strong male inhabitants of the future country tear the curtain apart.

THE FIRST ONE

All's well that begins well!

THE SECOND ONE

And the end?

THE FIRST ONE

There will be no end!

(They sing)

Sun, you gave birth to passions

And burned with an inflamed ray.

We will throw a dustsheet over you

And confine you in a boarded-up concrete house!

Over 100 years ago, avant-garde artists dreamed of a radical art form of the future with “Victory over the Sun.” Now this lost work is being revived by Showcase Beat Le Mot, the Von Krahl Theatre, Maya Dunietz and the soloist ensemble Kaleidoskop — an explosive interplay of sound, body and colour.

In 1913, a group of avant-gardists around Kazimir Malevich set out to break with all traditions and conventions. “Victory over the Sun” was intended to be the first futuristic opera to herald a new era in art and society. But the premiere ended in scandal and the piece was cancelled after only one performance. Only fragmentary sketches have survived. It is therefore hardly surprising that the opera lives on in cultural memory as a historical work rather than a piece with contemporary relevance. “Victory over the Sun” was and is a provocation – a dream of a universe without a centre.

A collaboration that explores both old and new provocations. We unfurl the sun sails and Braal antennas to listen to echoes of a future that was dreamed of in the past.