The world is out of joint – it haunts hugely on the stages of this world. Zombie figures, an absurd theater panopticon emerged, play their role probably for the thousandth time. Their gestures are stolen, their stories are wrong, their monologues rotate in a continuous loop.
But what is fake and what is real? Does that matter at all? Certainly not feelings, and yet it feels good. So good that they try again and again. So play it again, Sam!
Nothing is clear in this Absurdesque. The audience must constantly decide whether it is still fun game or already serious reality. But in the end, they are ready for a new world, a new beginning. And Master Beckett is smiling from above.
Background
No. 2 takes up the meaninglessness and absurdities of politics and the everyday world. The play depicts a world in which viewers do not immediately recognize each other. The question of meaning always appears as a starting point. On stage, various elements are used that celebrate the most absurd purges of meaning. Reflecting the absurdities of the world, viewers recognize their own everyday experiences from the world of the media. The aim of our Absurdesque is the perfect emptying of meaning. Through the actions and the reactions of the actors to each other, a possible meaningfulness is deliberately interrupted again and again.
No. 2 is the continuation of the play “Absurdesque” from the year 2008. With the Absurdesque Theaterlabor established an independent genre in the theater world. In the second part, the ensemble brings a modern form of absurd theater to the stage through various elements. Through the use of characters from Beckett’s works and the use of gestures and facial expressions by world politicians such as Donald Trump and Marine Le Pen we develop on the stage a very unique style. The interpretations and readings are left to the viewers themselves. Ultimately, they decide if and how much meaning they attribute to an observed situation. Thus, the active spectator is empowered to make sense of a self-slipping world again.
Team
director: Siegmar Schröder
with: Yuri B. Anderson, Thomas Behrend, Michael Grunert, Agnetha Jaunich, Laura Parker, Lukas Pergande, Florian Wessels, Alina Tinnefeld
Premiere
12. Mai 2017
Supported by Stiftung der Sparkasse Bielefeld and Stadt Bielefeld – Kulturamt.