Godzilla Tribute Band

on programme

This performance doesn't have any called terms at the moment.

premiere

17. March 2022, SNG Nova Gorica

about text

Godzilla is an enormous, destructive prehistoric sea creature that was maimed and woken from hibernation by nuclear radiation. Godzilla is the queen of monsters, one of the greatest icons of the pop culture ever. It was first introduced to the audiences in 1954 in the Japanese film by director Ishiro Honda and the author of the special effects Eiji Tsuburay. Thus far, thirty-six films have been made about it, many video games, and it also appears as a central character in graphic novels, novels and television series. But what if Godzilla is more than just that, or even something completely different? What if this oversized, clumsy creature that destroys skyscrapers of the world metropolises in front of it, is first and foremost simply misunderstood? What if it is a captive of its own fame, capital and the film industry? What if this creature, just like all of us, most of all desires to be accepted and respected in the society? What if of all the things in the world, it simply wants a friend? 

Godzilla Tribute Band is a three-member band that is saving the world. Because it has to. Because it wants to. But it’s not just that. It’s a production that merges theatre of objects, puppet and performative theatre and theatre with masks, and finds inspiration in (punk) concerts, old films and video games. Aesthetically, it refers to the films of B-production and Eiji Tsuburay himself, that is, to Godzilla’s original home environment and translates this aesthetics to the performing language. Through the unusualness of our own ideas and the even more bizarre things that are a part of everyday life (and of which we are often not even aware), the Godzilla Tribute Band comically tackles the social (un)acceptance (in)equality, (under)privilege and refers to the current spreading of misinformation, apocalyptical sentiment and ostensible hopelessness, individual’s personal contacts, operation of political elites, the curfew. All this through the members of the band and of course the protagonist and the star of the evening about which we otherwise don’t think often … unless we see it in a commercial to watch a film … or a theatre production.

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