This work was originally created in 1998 by Darshan Singh Bhuller on his own company Singh Productions. Planted Seeds returns in 2003 with the larger Phoenix Dance Theatre under the direction of Bhuller for a winter tour.
Based on events during the Yugoslavian war, Planted Seeds is an often disturbing look at the very human cost of military conflict when that conflict is between people who once lived side by side.
In a recent interview with Article19 Mr Bhuller said of Planted Seeds;
“I didn’t go it to particularly do a piece about war. Just watching the news coverage pissed me off. My initial reaction was that I didn’t realise that women were used in that way in a war so I really wanted to investigate that. The other thing was they were bombing Dubrovnik, in Croatia in the old town and they bombed the theatre there. I performed there when I was an 18 year old kid with LCDT. When I heard that it became personal, I thought, how could they do that?”
The evening long work is in two parts. We bring you a short section from part two which covers the relationship between Bosko Brkic and Admira Ismic, (portrayed in the piece by Kevin Turner and Lisa Welham, pictured above). They were killed by sniper fire whilst trying to escape the conflict in Sarajevo in 1993. The two became a striking symbol of the unbearable cruelty of the conflict when their deaths were reported across the world.
Planted Seeds is performed by; Lisa Welham, Kevin Turner, Davina Givan, Tiia Ourila, Tanya Richam-Odoi, Yann Seabra, Errol White, Kialea-Nadine Williams and Bob Smith.
Phoenix are touring with the work until the end of November for full details use the listings link below.
