Concert performermance by Uroš Kaurin
On theatricality of relationship between a performer and his audience; on its depth and profanity, its authenticity and illusion. The title song “Tonight I celebrate my love for you” (Michael Masser, Gerry Goffin, 1983) is the introduction into 8 popular song with which the singer and the performer Uroš Kaurin, accompanied on contrabass by musician Tomaž Grom, expresses his love for his audience. “Today’s viewer seems to be used to almost everything. It actually seems that he has already seen, experienced, and consumed everything tangy the theatre had to offer. Tragic faith, live violence, nudity and sex, and similar attacks on his privileged position, he has dealt with already, and now he is only ready to enjoy theatre … “ (Blaž Lukan: Approach, 2004) Only one question remains: If the audience of today is ready for everything, does it mean that a performer of today must be ready for everything too?
Conceived by Uroš Kaurin and Bojan Jablanovec
Text and direction: Bojan Jablanovec
Performers: Uroš Kaurin and Tomaž Grom
Music adaptations: Tomaž Grom
Light design: Igor Remeta
Producer: Špela Trošt
Production: Via Negativa, 2009, with the support by Ministry of Culture of Republic of Slovenia and the City of Ljubljana
Premiere: 7 October 2009, The Old Power Station Ljubljana
Duration: 45 min
Interview with Uroš Kaurin
Interview with Uroš Kaurin
(Dina J., Perforations, October 2011)
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Your performances Tonight I Celebrate is a wonderful blend of music and love. You open it with the song by which you have titled this play “Tonight I Celebrate My Love For You”. Say, why particularly this song? Is there some special meaning for you?
This song, like all others, is selected because of the text and the function it plays in the show. The songs were selected by this principle and thus do not have any particular substantiality for me, personally. Selected, of the course, due to some collective subconsciousness (unconsciousness) and I think, that by the same principle, different people would come to very similar choice.
With which the songs do you “flirt” with the audience and what message you want to transfer by such selection of songs?
The songs and play, all flirt with the audience. This is a show for the performer and his audience. A message is already in the songs …
Which is essentially the starting idea of this play?
First there was a very interesting and enigmatic, not to say incomprehensible, scene. Bojan then recalled the concept of the concert, and so everything went its way. A starting idea is the love between the performers and audience and between audience and performers, and where these things can take us, and seduce us.
Is the music a regular part of your work otherwise? Why did you decide to make a musical performance?
Not quite as intense as in this performance. Musical performance, in fact, a concert, is something with what, we humans, can quickly identify and what very quickly, easy and powerfully, establishes a connection between us …
Do you think that music is one of the strongest languages of love?
Certainly. Surely the most employed (used and abused).
Do the other artists celebrate as well, those who use other ways of expressing, the love of the audience?
Sure. In a way, any performance or appearance is a expression of love to the audience, so is our performance, our appearance, is some kind of celebration as well.
What is the reaction of the audience at your show?
Positive. In America, I think, they did not completely understand the thing, but they had fun. And those who do understand, are caught in this sweet and bitter (bitter-sweet) enjoying the show. Few people have a negative attitude.
Do you think you manage to realize your intention to make the audience feel the love that you provide to it?
Yes. If I would not really provide the love, everything would be meaningless. If I do not believe what I sing and talk, then this show does not work and it’s all just a joke. It is still a show before that I am very nervous, and for which I have to prepare well each time.
What are your expectations from this year’s festival Perforations?
I hope that the audience will come, and that together we will celebrate this strange thing that sometimes happens among us …
