thunderstorms are rolling into munich every day from the north-west. usually at some time in the afternoon, a sudden strong wind appears, causing me to rush out to the balcony & move some of the more delicate plants into sheltered positions. then the sky goes black, there is thunder & lightning, & a downpour of rain is unleashed. in a very tropical manner, it’s all over quickly – the wind drops, the sky clears, & everything carries on as a normal summer day. i’m not sure about the wind, but the rain & sunshine is definitely good for the plants – the tomatoes already have quite a lot of fruit on them, the lettuces and herbs are growing wildly, & even the potted zuccini has managed to grow one edible-sized zuccini!

i’m back in munich after a month of travelling: first to LiWoLi in Linz, Austria; the Live Performers’ Meeting in Rome, then a week of holiday in Tuscany; and lastly a spontaneous trip to the Prague Quadrennial. this is a huge stage design festival, held every four years in prague. it’s actually more like a trade fair than a festival, as everything is organised according to country, with each country having a “pavillion” (as well as the student section, costume section, architecture section and a multitude of talks, performances, workshops and other events all going on simultaneously). there are prizes given out to the best countries in the different sections – a competitive nationalism that seems very last-century – and the overall tone of the event was very mainstream & fairly conservative; there were of course some great things, but nothing that really surprised me.

i didn’t come across anyone talking about cyberformance, screenography, or the internet as a site for performance, but the programme was so huge and difficult to negotiate that i could easily have missed something. becca gave me notes from a meeting where someone did, briefly, talk about it – but more to dismiss it as an unviable “stage”; and afterwards i learned via another friend that an article in the serbian exhibition’s catalogue referenced me and my work. the serbian pavillion featured a series of holograms from video documentation of theatre performances, very well presented. i caught interesting talks from directors romeo castellucci, and kirsten dehnholm (from hotel pro forma in copenhagen). There were also site specific events, such as Voicequake, a walking performance that took us through interesting back allies of old prague with musical interludes; and Vlatava, where we audience were sent onto the river in paddleboats, to watch the action taking place on and around slovansky island. this was amazing, apart from the fact that it was pouring with rain at the time. amber & i braved it out – she peddalled like crazy & got soaking wet while i held my little umbrella over me (it wasn’t big enough to hold it over both of us in our boat seats) & attempted to take photos … but my fingers became so numb with cold, there weren’t very many successful photos. the previous and following days were glorious summer evenings, perfect for a lieisurely paddle around an island …

it was great to experience the quadrennial as a visitor, to catch up with the many kiwis & other friends who were there, & to discover prague which is a beautiful old city. the richness of the austro-hungarian empire is evident in the many grand old buildings, untouched by the wars and well-preserved by the communists who also added their own impressive edifices. the nova scena – new stage of the national theatre – is one such example; dating from the 60s or 70s, it features a large spiral staircase, spacious smoky bar, generous foyers & large auditorium with sleep-inducing uber-comfy seats. the interior including the staircase is predominantly a lovely dark green stone which, as i learned by eavesdropping on a tour guide, was given to Czechoslovakia by Cuba in lieu of repaying a debt. if only we could apply this kind of logic to today’s current “crisis” …

these days prague is suffering from an over-supply of tourists. no doubt it’s good for the economy, but it can make crossing the main square difficult, the taxi drivers over-charge outrageously, and on my first night there we witnessed the aftermath of a bag-snatching incident (a man holding a handbag raced past the restaurant where we were sitting outside, closely followed by a woman yelling at him & several other men; happily, a few minutes later the woman returned with her handbag). the old town still has all its beautiful old buildings and twisty narrow streets, but most of the shops that aren’t restaurants and bars are selling souvenirs and other expensive items aimed at the foreign tourists. i would like to go back when it’s not high season.