Border Crossings

http://www.bordercrossings.org.uk

Border Crossings, an intercultural theatre company based in London, focuses its work on the exploration of cultural interaction. Founded in 1995, it has always been a company that actively encourages processes of transition and translation in theatre and performance. The company has a variety of working strategies, including commissioning playwrights to develop play texts and developing work through the collaboration of artists from different cultures. The principle that unites all of the working methods of Border Crossings is the belief that some level of collaboration is always necessary. Such a commitment to collaboration facilitates theatrical productions that dynamically embody multiple perspectives and diverse voices. After receiving an Arts Council of England New Writing Award, Border Crossings, in association with the Hungarian Cultural Centre, commissioned Double Tongue for inclusion in the 2001 European Year of Languages festival. Written in English and Hungarian by Brian Woolland, a Lecturer in Theatre at the University of Reading, the piece was first presented at the Old Red Lion, a fringe theatre in London, on June 19, 2001. In autumn 2002, the production was revived, with some revisions to the script, for a tour in Hungary and the UK. The tour, also funded by the Arts Council of England and the Hungarian Ministry of Culture, was launched on September 17, 2002 at the Old Synagogue in Szeged, Hungary. Double Tongue was performed in English, Serbian and Hungarian by an international cast, which included Hungarian actress Krisztina Erdelyi, Serbo-Croat actor Serge Soric, and English actors Ben Pitts, David Farnworth and Arnie Hewitt. It was directed by Michael Walling and designed by the Japanese artist Kimie Nakano. Set in Budapest and Szeged in spring 1999, the time of the conflict in Kosovo, the dramatic action of Double Tongue unfolds within a very charged political context. Important political developments were taking place in the Balkans at this time. On March 12 of that year Hungary joined NATO. Roughly two weeks after Hungarian accession, NATO launched its bombing campaign on Kosovo. The ethnic Albanian guerillas of the KLA called for NATO to send in ground forces in order to protect Albanians and expel the Serbs. The Hungarian Republic answered affirmatively to a request by NATO to allow military aircraft to fly through its airspace and take off and land on its territory.

• 12/8/2013
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