"The Place We Built"

OPEN TO THE PUBLIC | In a deserted neighborhood in post-communist Budapest, young bohemians squat in an abandoned building and build a bar. Reclaiming the Jewish identity their parents’ generation abandoned after the Holocaust, they create a vibrant new subculture that combines big ideas and intense debates with wild parties. Friendships form and fray, couples recombine, people change, the neighborhood is transformed. But when authoritarianism and anti-Semitism make a surprise comeback in the country at large, will the place they built survive? A tale of friendship, idealism, and coming of age, set against the backdrop of Hungary’s current terrifying slide into dictatorship—and the global rise of right-wing populism. This faculty performance production features multimedia immersive staging, and a live jazz/Romani/Balkan/Afro-pop/Sephardic/Turkish/klezmer band.

The Place We Built is written by Sarah Gancher and directed by Jean Randich.

Music arrangement and direction: Bruce Williamson

Designs by: 
Sue Rees (set and projections)
Olivera Gajic (costumes)
Evan Grey Caldwell (lights)
Miran Kapor (sound)
Timothy Atkinson, Larry Dembski, and Keely Durkin (puppets)

Dramaturgy by:
Rob Ascher and Soumya Rachel Shailendra

Assistant directed by:
Inas Gacanin

Stage Managed by:
Florence Gill

Shows take place Friday, Saturday, and Sunday May 3, 4, and 5 at 8:00 pm. For tickets please email: tickets@bennington.edu