ГОРА | THE MOUNTAIN

The jury's
conclusion

ГОРА -The Mountain will be produced by the independent theatre collective MESTO D / PLACE D from Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, in collaboration with the Polish German director Alina Sobotta. The performance takes its point of departure in Henrik Ibsen’s last play When We Dead Awaken and explores themes of artistic stagnation, compromise, and the possibility of awakening in light of the current political situation in Kyrgyzstan. The Ibsen Scope jury was struck by the way the applicants approach Ibsen’s work — as a provocation directed towards our own present. For the artists involved, the question posed by Ibsen is no longer philosophical, but existential. In The Mountain, the company proposes a site-sensitive performance to be staged in an underground bunker beneath the National Museum in Bishkek. Five performers will inhabit a stark scenic landscape inspired by extreme conditions, where Ibsen’s characters appear as bodies exposed to a hostile environment in which hope and despair coexist. The central metaphor of the project is the mountain itself — a symbol deeply rooted in Kyrgyz culture. It represents freedom and transcendence, but also isolation, absence, and death. The performance connects this imagery to recent real-life tragedies in the mountains of Central Asia, and to a broader reflection on societies that gradually adapt to fear, silence, and repression. The jury is intrigued by the project’s approach to the material. Rather than presenting a linear staging of Ibsen’s play, the performance unfolds as a series of encounters in which bodies struggle against cold, exhaustion, and the weight of history. Physical endurance, movement, and spatial experience become the primary dramaturgical means, alongside a strong visual language and carefully composed sound. The Mountain is also shaped by an international collaboration between Kyrgyz artists, exiled Russian performers, and European collaborators. In this way, the project brings together different experiences of political pressure and displacement, creating a shared space where Ibsen’s notion of awakening becomes both a warning and a possibility. As stated in the application:
“The title — When We Dead Awaken — sounds like a threat: what if we do indeed wake up?”

About the project

ГОРА | THE MOUNTAIN is an artistic collaboration between the independent theater company Mesto D based in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan with Polish-German director and performer Alina Sobotta.

The performance uses Henrik Ibsen’s last play When We Dead Awaken as a lens to reflect on contemporary conditions of fear, silence, and the urgent desire for freedom. In the play, the protagonists symbolically ascend a mountain – and are killed by an avalanche near the top.

THE MOUNTAIN emerges from the current situation in Kyrgyzstan. In this context, Ibsen’s play is not treated as a historical drama, but as a radical proposition: can one still choose freedom, truth, and life after years of compromise and inner paralysis? The central metaphor of the performance is the mountain (ГОРА). In Kyrgyzstan, a country which is 94% high mountainous terrain, the mountains symbolize freedom, transcendence, and heroism, but also isolation, abandonment and death. The project also draws on a recent real tragedy of two climbers on Victory Peak (Pik Pobeda). The woman’s torn tent was filmed by a drone while it remained unclear whether she was still alive. This image—beautiful weather, snow with blinding sun and a destroyed shelter—becomes a powerful symbol of suspended hope. Ibsen’s figures are placed into this extreme landscape. They are not psychological characters, but bodies exposed to conditions of cold, exhaustion and moral pressure. When you freeze, you can not walk anymore, you cannot move anymore – but you can still see.

The show is conceived as a site-sensitive, interdisciplinary work, performed in a concrete bunker. It unfolds in a series of physical and visual études. The working language is Russian, reflecting the shared realities of exile within the team. THE MOUNTAIN does not offer solutions. It creates a space of clarity, danger, and responsibility. Awakening, in this work, is not salvation—it is risk.

Mesto D and Alina Sobotta
Mesto D «Место — Действие» (Eng. Site-Action) has been a key force in contemporary Kyrgyz theatre for over 18 years. The Bishkek-based company is known for experimental, site-specific and socially engaged work. Without a permanent venue, Mesto D transforms urban spaces —from buses and factories to abandoned buildings—into stages. With over 100 artistic events and 16 productions, festivals and laboratories, MESTO D combines artistic experimentation with civic engagement through collaborations with international partners such as the Soros Foundation Kyrgyzstan, Goethe-Institut, and UN Women. The team centers and expands around Co-Artistic directors Olcha Shchetinina and Roman Khuzin (producers/curators/performers), Zhibek Birikova, Matvey Matveev, Andrey Cherkasov and Roman Tretyakov.

Alina Sobotta explores in her work dynamics of violence from a feminist perspective and utopian concepts with a dash of humor. She studied in Germany and the USA, receiving three diplomas – American Studies, Slavic Studies (MA) and theater directing. Her projects have been shown at Kampnagel, PACT Zollverein, Thalia Gauß, and Schauspielhaus Hamburg. She has received numerous stipends and fellowships. Her transdisciplinary collaborations span Hamburg, Berlin, Warsaw and Bishkek.