Granma. Trombones from Havana

By Stefan Kaegi

Cuba has always been a projection space for utopians and their critics. In the 60th year of the revolution, four young Cubans search for traces of history: after the revolution, Faustino Pérez became the first minister for nationalization of property after the revolution. His grandson Daniel still has a catalogue from an auction where confiscated barrettes and seaside villas were sold. Together with him on stage: 24-year-old software programmer Christian who traces his grandfather's path to the Angolan civil war, and Milagro, a history student, who tries to understand why the revolution that enabled her to study will barely allow her to earn a living once she becomes a professor.

In Granma. Trombones from Havana, together with the 31-year-old musician Diana, whose grandfather was once one of the founding members of the „Orquesta Maravillas de Florida“, these young Cubans embark on a journey through time in which they tell the stories of their families over multiple generations and intertwine them with contemporary sociopolitical questions of a country that is changing. In this intent, they are making Cuba’s history their own in order to keep writing it. In the company of the composer Ari Benjamin Meyers and four trombones they exercise a revolutionary music practice: they learn to do together something that they thought would never be possible before.

With: Milagro Álvarez Leliebre, Daniel Cruces-Pérez, Christian Paneque Moreda, Diana Sainz Mena.

Concept / Direction: Stefan Kaegi

Stage: Aljoscha Begrich

Video: Mikko Gaestel, Stefan Korsinsky, Bodo Gottschalk

Composition: Ari Benjamin Meyers

Sound Design: Aaron Ghantus, Tito Toblerone

Dramaturgy: Aljoscha Begrich, Yohayna Hernández

Costumes: Julia Casabona

Technical Direction/Light Design: Sven Nichterlein, Martin Schwemin, Hans Leser

Production Management: Maitén Arns

Video Collaboration: Marta María Borrás

Dramaturgical Collaboration: Ricardo Sarmiento

Assistant Director: Noemi Berkowitz

Assistant Stage Design: Julia Casabona

Production Assistant: Federico Schwindt, Dianelis Diéguez

Intership: Joana Falkenberg (Stage), Ignacia González (Direction), Lenna Stam (Costumes)

Touring Management: Maitén Arns, Federico Schwindt (on tour)

Subtitles: Meret Kündig, Federico Schwindt (on tour)

Translation: Meret Kündig, Franziska Muche, Anna Galt, Marta Vukovic, Adrien Leroux (Panthea)

Trombone lessons: Yoandry Argudin Ferrer, Diana Sainz Mena und Rob Gutowski

Research Cuba: Residencia Documenta Sur, coordinated by Laboratorio Escénico de Experimentación Social: Maité Hernandéz-Lorenzo (investigadora y periodista), Karina Pino Gallardo (residente), José Ramón Hernández Suárez (residente), Ricardo Sarmiento Ramírez (residente), Taimi Diéguez Mallo (residente) y Miriam E. González Abad (productora).

A Production of Rimini Apparat and Maxim Gorki Theater Berlin in coproduction with Emilia Romagna Teatro Fondazione, Festival TransAmériques (Montréal), Kaserne Basel, Onassis Cultural Centre – Athens, Théatre Vidy-Lausanne, LuganoInscena-Lac, Zürcher Theaterspektakel, Festival D'Avignon.

Funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation, the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia and the Senate Department for Culture and Europe. In collaboration with Goethe Institut Havanna.

Granma. Trombones from Havana at INTERNATIONAAL THEATER AMSTERDAM is part of IDFA.