etb English
Theatre
Berlin International Performing Arts Center

A Space Drama | A Science FACTion Tale

Imagine: You were launched into space at the height of the Cold War – 30 years ago. Your space station is a secret collaboration with your archenemy. Then the Iron Curtain fell and your space agencies conveniently forgot about you and your co-commander from the opposite side. The two of you have struggled for mental and physical survival ever since.

Theater, visual art and sound design meet in this intense exploration of outer and inner space.

post theater has created a situation in which the politics and psychology of the 20th century’s former East and former West, pessimism and optimism, meet in the form of two juxtaposed characters. The fictitious international space station PACE becomes a battleground of philosophies and beliefs. .

For many years, post theater has been working on post-documentary performances, blending intense research with fiction. Stuck in Orbit follows a series of reflections of Soviet era utopianism. The space race, at the height of the Cold War, was a combination of soft power diplomacy and military threat. Not too long ago, this felt nearly anachronistic. Currently, with raising nationalism and the emerging superpower China, this has gained a strange sense of contemporariness. Space has again become a battleground for geopolitical conflicts.

Stuck in Orbit is post theater’s first collaboration with ETB | IPAC. It is performed in English with German subtitles.

Post-performance discussions will be offered on May 10 with Johannes Weppler, a space aviation expert of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Luft- und Raumfahrt and on May 11 and May 16 with the artists of the production.

post theater is an interdisciplinary performing arts unit without an ensemble. Projects range from theater to dance, multimedia performances to installations. Reoccurring themes are identity, resources and technology. The creative, haptic and original usage of video projections is a key component to the company’s work. post theater was founded in 1999 in New York, moved its headquarters to Berlin in 2002, opened a Tokyo branch in 2005 and one in Stuttgart in 2010. post theater has presented more than 50 works at festivals and arts institutions in 50 cities in 20 countries (e.g. Bangkok, Barcelona, Belgrade, Berlin, Cologne, Ljubljana, Milan, Munich, New York, Salamanca, Singapore, Seoul, Taipei, Tokyo, Vienna, Yokohama, Zagreb, Zurich). Hiroko Tanahashi and Max Schumacher are the artistic co-directors. In addition to the artistic work, post theater also gives lectures and workshops at art institutions and universities worldwide. post theater has won many awards, for example the Bremer Autorenpreis (2004 & 2011) and the Stuttgart Theater Award (2015 & 2017).