Plats: Hallen, Mårbackagatan 11, 12343 Farsta
History Was Written by the Losers / Hoedown Showdown is the latest work by David Kern (USA/ IL), Tamar Lamm (IL) and Tilman O’Donnell (GER/ USA/SWE). Part satire, part concert, and part performance, the piece borrows from traditional American country western dancing to combine with a contemporary take on a short form vocal poetry known as ”hoedown”. A hoedown is a traditional rhyming game, a call and response where the performer must create a premise and then resolve it in the short space of 4 bars of music. The subjects of this hoedown are revered historical figures: Ghandi, Einstein, Socrates, Abraham Lincoln, Freud, etc.
The performers ap-ear as lonely cowboys and or stray dogs. Though not always clear who is dog and who is human they are all no doubt the losers mentioned in the title. They posses a uniquely skewed sense of history and time. As the work unfolds these itinerant figures weave an ulterior history through the repetition of their hoedown and inquiry of their dance. From the sublime to the ridiculous these stories rest not on solid fact but on poetic logic and imaginative landscapes.
History Was Written By the Losers / Hoedown Showdown examines and calls into question the way history is generally presented and propagated. The title is a play on the cliché ”History is written by the victors.” Here the losers, with earnest conviction, humor and a touch of melancholy, interrogate the very efficacy of history itself.
By & With: Tamar Lamm, David Kern, Tilman O’Donnell
Text: David Kern & Tilman O’Donnell
Light Design & Technical Direction: Thomas Zamolo
Produced by: WELD, Stockholm
With the generous support of: The Israeli Choreographers Association & The Fund For Independent Creators