About
The international independent theatre company PLAYADES spotlights female characters and creates strong, diverse images of women's worlds.
PLAYADES is an international independent company. It was founded in 2010 in London by 7 actresses from 3 continents. The theatre makers wish to use their diverse artistic and cultural backgrounds as a starting point for new perspectives on familiar stories.
Since 2014, Playades has existed as an association under Swiss law, based in Naters, VS.
The aims of the women's company PLAYADES are:
Spotlighting Female Characters
to stage strong, diverse, contradictory images of women's worlds.
In the cultural history that still shapes us today, men are the norm and women the exception. For the theatre maker, this is both an annoyance and a gift: Theatre is the place to create alternative worlds and reveal unknown realities. Sometimes it is enough to tell stories about women and from their perspective. We look forward to embarking on a journey of discovery with our audiences in search of untold stories.
Exchange Across Borders
to commit to the exchange of theatre texts and traditions across linguistic and national boundaries.
Playades wishes for translations of plays that are written for the stage, not for the university library. – They know that every translation creates a new work in a certain sense, and want to exploit this freedom: How can I meet the author's ideas with equal creativity?
Own Texts and New Contexts
to write texts ourselves, but also to rediscover existing ones in unexpected contexts.
The founders of Playades are at home in two cultures. In many respects they are "between a rock and a hard place", belonging fully to neither. This offers the opportunity to view much that is familiar from an outside perspective. (What is a "difficult" German classic like Kleist worth in England, where his name does not automatically command reverence?) Or to explore things anew beyond their usual cultural valuation. (Henry VIII with his 6 wives – almost pop culture in Great Britain! But what happens when themes such as male heir / marital fidelity / mortal danger of childbirth are explored anew through the eyes of a Korean woman?)