Home Eros Faith

The independent artistic company Honey and Dust with their production Home Eros Faith develops a profile of an artistic group on the edge between fine arts, puppet theatre, performance and a concert.

The audience is thrown in a theatre space not as a passive recipient of the stage piece, but as participant open to absorb certain form of theatrical ritual, expected to associate their own experiences, knowledge and emotions based on experience, knowledge and emotions of the authors. The close contact between the protagonists and the audience multiplies energy in each of the two groups.

The authors do not pose any limits in terms of internal dramaturgy of the production form. They work freely with the motifs and themes of individual acts, they do not bring any component to the forefront – as if everything had its own special time and space (music by Andrej Kalinka, action painting by Juraj Poliak and, last but not least, the puppetry technologies by Ivan Martinka). The production does not develop any legible story or classical dramatic situations, but rather visual – musical fragments that symbolically open with birth and end with death of man.

Within the Slovak context the Home Eros Faith production is a specific theatre project, not merely in terms of poetics or the chosen means of expression, but particularly because of its wealthy inner world precipitated with spirituality, imagination and genuine spontaneity. The authors use the scenic theatre to subtly whisper to us: “Memento mori.” In the contemporary overly technical, digital and materialistic world where morals, politeness, honour and truth are not en vogue, the production by Honey and Dust presents a societal and human appeal.

Yet it is still also an honest and intimate confession of all authors, something that is invaluable in contemporary Slovak theatre.
Iveta Ditte Jurčová, Michal Ditte

“Quite appropriately, the authors of Home Eros Faith have identified their production as scenic piece. That confirm their intention to bring a “production” in shape of a conceptual piece presented on stage. Hence a piece that has a leitmotif and contains a personal statement by the authors (searching, finding, and losing dome, love and faith as the fundamental human pillar and securities).  It uses elements and tools of various art disciplines (music, singing, action painting, puppet theatre, performance, etc.), whilst individual actors use a hierarchy in their use of the chosen elements and subject their output to the organic whole.
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Home Eros Faith can be identified as “trans-chronological” companion through human life, fate of man who carried his cross daily, nibbles on his “daily bread” and experiences different flavours (the symbol of bread is also used as differently highlighted prop).
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The authors articulate very simple, yet the more co complex phenomenon of human struggle with one’s own life and the ultimate coming to terms with death. Memento mori: along with the fullness of earthly life man ought to also bear in mind that a day will come when he shall entrust his soul to God and will stand at the last trial alone with his deeds in silent hope for resurrection.
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The authors use quite intimate means to present to the audience the idea which expressed their personal views of the theme, i.e. that the genuine earthly home is where love lives with faith, where door is open to everyone who has heart filled with sympathy, compassion as well as remorse.”
What is the home, eros and faith of contemporary man? (Elena Knopová, Monitoring divadiel.sk, 24.7.2015)