Bagadelnia

The play-game “Bagadelnia” consists of eight distinct but closely connected stories from a single care home for the elderly. The actors will invite the audience to choose which stories they want to see. “Bagadelnia” tells of people who have led different lives, had different experiences and fates, but ultimately found themselves at the same shared point. The fact that the characters in the play are residents of a care home for the elderly does not mean that the audience will be immersed in sadness and sympathy during the performance. Quite the opposite. The actors will reveal the fun, almost fairy-tale-like adventures, experiences and discoveries of its grey-haired heroes: old romantics and former hippies from the Soviet era. After all, in old age, when everything seems less colourful, some things simply have to be imagined. The play brings together different worldviews, religions and opposing political views, but most often it is a person confronting themselves, those around them and their memories. As the care-home residents themselves say, a bagadelnia is the vestibule of heaven. And here is what Jim Morrison of “The Doors,” who appears in the play, says about this vestibule: “The doors of perception are cleansed here and everything appears to man as it is, infinite” (help for those who do not understand English). The creators invite the audience to open the door to that vestibule with them, because perhaps there they will glimpse what comes next and what has already been left behind. What if the five old people appearing in the play, through their long lives and extreme experiences, really have opened that door and learned something they could share with us? What if? Premiere: 10 and 11 November 2018. Funded by: Publications: