The fifteenth edition of the Fundamental Monodrama Festival will take place at Banannefabrik in Luxembourg-Bonnevoie from Friday 13 to Sunday 22 June 2025.
This year's edition of the solo performance festival will showcase a total of fourteen shows (including nine new creations), representing ten different countries.
The programme includes several English-language performances, notably during the "Monolabo" evening on Thursday 19 June 2025.
Programme
Friday 13 June @ 20:00: Tu connais Dior?, a French-language theatre creation by and starring Valérie Bodson (Luxembourg)
Saturday 14 June @ 20:00: Noces, a French-language play by and starring Safourata Kabore (Burkina Faso)
Sunday 15 June @ 19:00: Falsch Beweegungen, a "Monolabo" dance creation by and with Serge Tonnar (Luxembourg)
Sunday 15 June @ 20:00: Requiem for a Clown, a French-language theatre creation by Antoine Colla, featuring Rhiannon Morgan and the participation of Servane lo Le Moller (Luxembourg)
Monday 16 June @ 20:00: Silêncio, que vai-se cantar o Fado!, a Portuguese-language contemporary fado creation (concert / performance) by and with Magaly Teixeira (Luxembourg / Portugal)
Tuesday 17 June @ 20:00: All Before Death is Life - "an entertaining evening full of hocus-pocus" - a performance by and with Benjamin Verdonck (Belgium)
Wednesday 18 June @ 19:00: Unseen Universes, a "Monolabo" dance creation by and with Sissy Mondloch (Luxembourg)
Wednesday 18 June @ 20:00: The Whore of Canaan, a creation (performance) by and with Lana Nasser (Jordan / Netherlands), in English and Arabic
Thursday 19 June - Monolabo evening starting at 19:30:
- This Is How You Lose Her, an English-language "Monolabo" creation (performance) by and with Jess Bauldry (Luxembourg)
- Mad World, an English-language "Monolabo" theatre creation by and with Sarah Lamesch (Luxembourg)
- Does it Bite?, an English-language "Monolabo" creation (performance) by and with Olga Pozeli (Greece)
Friday 20 June @ 20:00: This is my truth, tell me yours, an English-language performance by and with Jasna Žmak (Croatia)
Saturday 21 June @ 20:00: Je suis à prendre ou à laisser, a French-language play by Bérékia Yergeau, starring Rebecca Kompaoré Tindindé (Republic of the Congo)
Sunday 22 June @ 12:00: Faust, a German-language play by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, starring Max Pfnür (Austria)
Spotlight on English-language performances
Lana Nasser's The Whore of Canaan (performed in English and Arabic) is described as a multimedia monodrama-dance with live musical accompaniment. Synopsis: An old man leads you through an ancient crumbling city to the last tree standing. Zaytoun is her name, Olive. She carries the stories of her kin and tells of her kind. Rooted in memories of people and place. Displaced, exploited and whored, yet still bearing seed.
Jess Bauldry's creation, This Is How You Lose Her, directed by Erik Abbott, is a "sharp, funny and deeply authentic blend of storytelling and stand-up" in which Gina Barton "lays bare the invisible forces shaping women's lives. Through vivid vignettes, she unpacks the weight of social conditioning - and the messy, often hilarious journey of unlearning it". The "her" in the creation's title refers to "the friend you shrink yourself for, the colleague who disrupts your carefully built world, and the shadow self you're desperate to leave behind". The festival organisers added that "this is a show for anyone who [has] ever questioned the roles they [have] been assigned".
Sarah Lamesch's Mad World is about a "painful breakup", after which "the lines between love, loss and truth begin to blur. How can you be sure of what really happened - and what was only in your mind?"
Olga Pozeli's devised show, Does it Bite?, addresses animal rights, "blurring the boundaries between art and life, with animals always at the foreground". The work aims to "explore their place in a socially aware art" using a non-linear narrative: "The story is not one, but many - imperfect ones". The show does "not aim to give definitive answers" but also explores what the disappearance of certain animals "would mean for all of us".
This is my truth, tell me yours is Jasna Žmak's first solo theatrical project. The title is "a quote of a quote", although the work deals more with some of the creator's own "truths", from a love-hate relationship with art to "female orgasm, male masturbation, artistic responsibility and buzzing in the ears".
Tickets per evening cost: €20 (full price); €8 (reduced price); €1.50 (Kulturpass). A festival pass costs €80. To book tickets, visit www.fundamental.lu or contact the organisers via tel.: 621-237-859 or via email: reservation@fundamental.lu.
