Who's Afraid of the Bogeyman

The starting point for the dance theatre performance Who’s Afraid of the Bogeyman is xenophobia. The word defining hatred towards foreigners and everything foreign comes from the Greek: xenos is a foreigner, phobos means fear. The performance will research the hatred born from the fear of the unknown, and the human and social dependency on the existence ofan enemy. Be it a person of another race, nationality or cultural environment, someone with a strange hat, a neighbour with a better car or someone with bizarre ideas, there is always someone who presents an obstacle for us and gives us something to gauge our value system against and show our worth overcoming it. Can we really not live without an enemy? The rules of symbiosis and leniency are based on the fact that we only recognise ourselves in the presence of the Other. Why then does the Other seem so insufferable to us? Will man/mankind ever enact Dostoevsky’s thought: “Making sure of one’s own common sense doesn’t require locking one’s neighbour into an asylum.”  
Who’s Afraid of the Bogeyman is director, actor and choreographer Ivan Peternelj’s first project as a director for the SNG Nova Gorica. His production will intertwine singing, dance and drama. Stage elements that seemingly don't fit into the field of the “theatrical” will flow together and blend into one onstage.