Last Chance to See 4'33” IN BAGHDAD at Toronto Fringe

Following a staggering success at the 2018 St-Ambroise Montreal Fringe Festival where they took home the Runner-up Prize for the MainLine Creativity Award, Thought Experiment Productions' Ülfet Sevdi and Nicolas Royer-Artuso look forward to pleasantly puzzling Toronto audiences with 4'33" IN BAGHDAD, a subtle scholarly striptease disguised as saucy TED Talk style stand-up comedy. Directed by Sevdi, performed by Royer-Artuso and co-written by the duo, 4'33" IN BAGHDAD is an immersive and interactive experience that runs as part of the Toronto Fringe Festival at Factory Theatre's Mainspace from July 6 to 15.

Theoretically grounded, conceptual and experimental, the performance cleverly couples themes of war, invasion, imperialism and academic research with avant-garde art theory, sound art and imposed sound installations (though, not necessarily in that order!)

Earlier short-form manifestations of 4'33" IN BAGHDAD had heads turning at various Canadian happenings in 2017, including Toronto's Festival of Original Theatre, the Montreal International Anarchist Theatre Festival, ShazamFest and Solidarity & Fightback, as well as Odd Stumble's Archipelago event at Montreal's iconic Rialto Theatre earlier this year.

Following its updated incarnation as a 40-minute multidisciplinary performance that debuted to great acclaim this past June at the Montreal Fringe Festival, 4'33" IN BAGHDAD is now set to entice (and entrap!) Toronto audiences ahead of its publication in the Canadian Theatre Review.

Ülfet Sevdi is a writer, theatre director, dramaturge and Theatre of the Oppressed practitioner, currently enrolled in an MA at Concordia University's INDI program in Montreal. Her work in oral history and social narrative is theoretically grounded in feminist theory and the social sciences. To elaborate and share her personal aesthetic experience, she often collaborates with artists from various artistic backgrounds by conducting workshops that build on narrative techniques.

Nicolas Royer-Artuso is a writer, composer, musician, linguist, musicologist, music teacher and Theatre of the Oppressed practitioner. He has directed numerous ensembles of 'maqam' music and is a proficient free improviser. A key aspect of his academic and musical work is the theoretical and practical use of heterophony, as well as phonology, morphology and the interface between the two.

Together they form Thought Experiment Productions, whose mission is to present a reflection on crucial contemporary sociopolitical themes. Its approach is highly conceptual, experimental, and theoretically grounded in the critical social sciences. Ultimately, Thought Experiment Productions is engaged in the creation of political art that is artistically satisfying and of aesthetics that are politically satisfying.

 

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