from 22.06.25 to 28.06.25
Scheduled 2025 Attività Concluso PLAYGROUND 24/26
PLAYGROUND – Gaëlle Axelbrun


PLAYGROUND – Gaëlle Axelbrun

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Scheduled 2025 Attività Concluso PLAYGROUND 24/26

R&D WORKSHOP – FAR FROM THE MUD IN WHICH WE SINK INTO SLEEP
by: French playwright Gaëlle Axelbrun
translated into Serbian by: Olja Petronić
text developed by: Tara Manić with actors Jana Bjelica, Nevena Kočović, and Andrej Nježić
Time
: 22-28 June 2025
Location
: Heartefact House, Belgrade

PLAYGROUND is a project co-funded by the European Union

R&D WORKSHOP – FAR FROM THE MUD IN WHICH WE SINK INTO SLEEP by Gaëlle Axelbrun

From June 22 to 28, Heartefact welcomed French playwright Gaëlle Axelbrun for a five-day residency in Belgrade to develop her play Far from the Mud in Which We Sink into Sleep.
During the residency, Gaëlle explored the performative potential of her poetic, multilayered text, which delves into childhood, family, and unspoken emotions. The process was led by director Tara Manić, with a French-to-Serbian translation by Olja Petronić, and featured actors Jana Bjelica, Nevena Kočović, and Andrej Nježić. The team focused on how the text resonates across generations—particularly with teenagers and older children—using play, movement, and sensory exploration to evoke memory, melancholy, and the longing for connection.
The residency concluded with a staged reading enriched by light, sound, and visual elements, offering Gaëlle a chance to see her words come to life and reflect on the play’s future development for adult or intergenerational audiences.

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From the author

“My week at Heartefact in Belgrade was truly a rich and rewarding one.
Working closely with the artistic team – Tara, the director; Olja, the translator; and Nevena, Jana, and Andrey, the actors – allowed me to reflect on my text and question my intentions, both conscious and unconscious. They also offered valuable ideas for further developing
certain themes and scenes.
Tara Manić’s staging research, centred around an overhead projector, struck me as both sensitive and precise. It opened my eyes to the  scenic possibilities within my text, which is incredibly exciting.”

– Gaëlle Axelbrun

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