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“material this good and delivered this well”
… a stirring defense of poesy and of collaborative artistic productions, which join artist and audience and transform every monologue into a conversation – of the sort that material this good and delivered this well is bound to sustain, long after the lights come down and we walk back out into the night, no longer alone.
“the kind of work nobody else in Milwaukee does”
The company does the kind of work nobody else in Milwaukee does…the kind of unique approach that makes them such a vital and valued member of the world of theater in Milwaukee.
“one of the best things staged all season”
Given that it’s covering birth, death and everything in between, it feels as though Theatre Gigante really is putting everything onstage . . . an entire, self-contained reality onstage for roughly one hour’s time … one of the best things to get staged all season.
Upcoming Shows
A U.S. premiere!
June 5-13, 2026
FRI,SAT @ 7:30/SUN @ 2:00
Next Act Theatre’s Performance Space
255 S Water Street, Milwaukee, WI 53204
Tickets $38 General Admission, $33 seniors, $23 students
online: nextact.org/show/gigante
or call 414-278-0765
or at the door
The winner of the Grum Award 2016 for the best new Slovene play, The Sakeshvili Democratic People’s Circus is set in a tiny totalitarian state in which everything is restricted and regulated. A voucher is required even for masturbation, suicide or happiness. Equality is pushed to the extreme; the sexes are no longer existent, while love is one and only, i.e. a love for the “lifelong” president, named Sakeshvili (also the name of any other person in the country).
In this work, author Rok Vilčnik is interested in tackling the theme of the victims of a dictatorship, i.e. the citizens who not only perform in a circus, but also live in it. It is a circus in which performance and the audiences are not separated. People lost their identity a long time ago, and when the news of the president’s death spreads, no one can remember who or what they used to be. What is more, they are unable to become something else and start living a new life. Freedom is too daunting; it brings along risks that they are no longer able to cope with.
The Sakeshvili Democratic People’s Circus presents a series of absurdly comic situations dealing with the topic of constant ”brainwashing” which destroys one’s personality, dignity and everything else that defines one as human.
Theatre Gigante is a Nonprofit Organization, and as such receives funds from Milwaukee County CAMPAC; Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts, Jane Kaczmarek, and Theatre Gigante Private Donors.
