Shira Piven's The Performance to shoot in Slovakia

US director Shira Piven’s drama The Performance, starring Jeremy Piven and Abbie Cornish, is set to start filming in Bratislava, Slovakia from this Friday, 5 November.

Filming will take place over 30 days at Bratislava’s historic locations, including the Slovak National Theatre, Reduta (the seat of the Slovak Philarmonic Orchestra) and the Primate’s Palace.

Daniel Finkelman of New York-based Sparks Next (The Vigil) is producing, alongside Chris Milburn and Chaya Greenberg.

The Performance is based on Arthur Miller's short story of the same name. It tells the story of Harold May, an American Jew and gifted tap dancer. While on tour in Europe, Harold and the rest of his troupe are scouted by a German attaché, who leads the troupe to an exclusive performance for Hitler himself.

The production will consist of a crew of 180 with Lael Utnik as DoP and Paki Meduri and Vlad Vieru as production designers.

Slovakia is growing as a filming hotspot, especially since raising its cash rebate from 20% to 33% last year. Recent big projects to shoot in the country include the fifth season of NBCUniversal/Nomadic Pictures’ fantasy horror Van Helsing and the third season of Amazon Prime's Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan. “We found a very talented group of film-makers in Slovakia, which is growing into a future destination for international film,” said Howard Ellis, producer of the series, starring John Krasinski.