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Berlin International Performing Arts Center

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Didi’s Son (Dirty Granny Tales)

In a world where everything is reversed and objects come to life while the human beings are subservient to them, a writer becomes part of the story that he is writing.

thanos didiHe falls in love with the leading lady of his fairy tale, threatened by his own story creatures, and in the end redeems them and is himself redeemed.

Dirty Granny Tales is an acoustic ensemble that narrates atmospheric stories. Their shows include puppet theater, dance performance and video animation projection, all of which, accompanied by the music, bring the story to life.

Influenced by the atmospheric fairy tales of Tim Burton and Guillermo Del Toro, the melodies of Danny Elfman, the irony of Tiger Lillies, The Residents’ sterile landscape, Japanese Gothic theater and Butoh choreography, Dirty Granny Tales transports us to a magical dark world in their own extraordinary way.

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Dirty Granny Tales are:

Stavros Mitropoulos (Mouldbreath): Vocals, Guitar, Mandolin

Thanos Mitropoulos (Wormeaten Vagus): Bass, Blockflute, Backing Vocals

Dalai Theofilopoulou (Slimeskin): Cello, Backing Vocals

Uli Muehe (Heartbeat Zero): Percussion, Backing Vocals

Anna Athanasiou and Katerina Liana: Dance, Puppets

 

Two For A Girl

“When a Traveller tells a tale, they’re listened to.”

It’s 1946, rural Ireland. Josie Connors, a young Irish Traveller, sets up camp with her nomadic family on the edge of Ryan’s farm. When she crosses one of the deeply entrenched cultural lines between her Irish (ethnic minority) travelling community and the Irish (settled) community, we are catapulted through decades of unthinkable consequences. “Stuck between two worlds” in abject isolation and poverty, Josie keeps moving, presented with the most compelling reason of all to survive.

“It is hard not to be struck by the raw emotion generated by Mary Kelly and Noni Stapleton’s outstanding  work – Two for a Girl…. this is theatre stripped down to its basics and it works.” Sunday Business Post. Five Stars *****

ETBIPAC_Two for a girl_Pic_Gerald WesolowskiTwo for a Girl is an homage to the intimacy and simplicity of traditional Irish theater, a style that can be as affecting on the back of a cart or the corner of a pub as it can on a formal stage. As Mary Kelly seamlessly embodies the five main characters, you will be drawn across generations and to every corner of Ireland in this unique look at identity, freedom and loss when two distinct Irish communities collide. This is a play about the transformative power and absolute necessity of being heard and bearing witness.

“A very moving piece that leaves you walking out of the theatre in a daze with the smell of a campfire in your nostrils.”  Doireann ni Choitir UTV.ie

In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin, ETB | IPAC continues its exploration of new Irish theater with Mary Kelly’s and Noni Stapleton’s Two for a Girl. The play is performed by Mary Kelly, a Berlin-based actor and playwright who is part of Berlin’s burgeoning international Freie Szene.

MARY KELLY is an actor and playwright. She graduated from the Gaiety School of Acting, Dublin, in 2002. Five of her plays have been produced, two of which are published: Unravelling the Ribbon and Two for a Girl. Unravelling the Ribbon toured Ireland in 2008, and had its U.S. premiere in 2010 with the Tennessee Women’s Theater Project. It has recently been translated into French. Since moving to Berlin, Mary was commissioned and has written The Scarlet Web for Big-Telly Theatre Company, Northern Ireland.

Mary’s theater work includes Christine Linde in A Doll’s House (Alan Stanford, Second Age Th. Co. Ireland), Lydia in All My Sons (Robin Lefevre, The Gate Theatre) and The Little Mermaid world tour (Big-Telly Th. Co.). TV and film work includes Parked with Colm Meaney (Ripple World Pictures), Fran (Setanta and TV3) and The Clinic (RTE). Radio work includes The Hit List with Brendan Gleeson, written and directed by John Boorman, and Mayday written and directed by Veronica Coburn.

Mary’s previous work at English Theatre Berlin includes: two staged readings of new Irish drama during English Theatre Berlin | International Performing Arts Center’s Irish festival The Full Irish (2013) and in ETB | IPAC’s Science&Theatre production of Isaac’s Eye by Lucas Hnath (2013/2014/2015). In January 2016, Mary presented her prose work within the literary event Inkblot Berlin at ETB | IPAC.

Two for a Girl is published by The Stinging Fly Press, Dublin.

Photo: Gerald Wesolowski

IMPRO 2016

Over the years, IMPROV has become one of the largest and one of the most important festivals of its kind in Europe. Good improvisational theater is meant to mirror its time, and thus IMPRO 2016, the international festival for improvisational theater (March 11-20) is dedicated to all those who are hoping for a better life outside of their home country.

IMPRO-2016_11_©Matthias-Fluhrer_klein

Saturday, March 12 | 8pm
Improv Without Borders

Professional improvising artists as well as improv amateurs will be celebrating the liveliness of improvised theater all over the world, from Melbourne to Shanghai, from Atlanta to Sindelfingen, today, on March 12. We, the Gorillas, invited the international improv community to do this, and every day, more improvisers adopt this idea. On the world’s improv stages, there will be scenes, whether lugubrious or celebrating life, but they will show the greatness of improvised theater: this understanding across borders, playing theatre scenes together, and commemorating those who are on the run around the world on this day. Moreover, it is our joint aim to support refugees: the proceeds of the six shows will go in equal shares to ProAsyl and Asyl in der Kirche; our other participating colleagues will be supporting local organisations around the world. In Berlin, the international ensemble will be playing at Baptistengemeinde Schöneberg, Bühnenrausch, English Theatre Berlin | International Performing Arts Center, the Volksbühne’s Grüner Salon, the Ratibor Theater, and at ufa Fabrik, with a colorful mix of 5-6 improvisers at each location. It’s up to you, dear audience, to make this day a festival of theater. You only have to come along.

Sunday, March 13 | 8pm
Who Are You?

Who are any of us really? A show, developed and presented by Lee White of CRUMBS, exploring who we are by asking questions designed to gain insight, and see the perspective of others. Discover who you are by learning how people perceive themselves. Plenty of laughs and heart touching moments as we see the person behind the walls we surround ourselves with everyday.

Monday, March 14 | 8pm
A Place To Be

The issue everyone talks about has arrived at our festival, too. This evening will approach the issues of exodus and borders, limitations and freedom, by means of improvisation. Farah Shaer and Lucien Bourjeily from the Lebanon, who already delighted IMPRO audiences two years ago, as well as Tarek Kannish (Syria) and Raouf Khelifa (Algeria) will first pass on their experience with these issues to the international cast in internal workshops. This is exactly the kind of IMPRO which is the reason why we, the Gorillas, organize it: it’s theater, as unpredictable as our life, which can also be as exhilarating in that people meet on stage and communicate across the barriers of language and culture; they are foreigners and approach each other, they misunderstand and understand. Everything that’s typical for life itself.

Tuesday, March 15 | 8pm
A Place To Be

The issue everyone talks about has arrived at our festival, too. This evening will approach the issues of exodus and borders, limitations and freedom, by means of improvisation. Farah Shaer and Lucien Bourjeily from the Lebanon, who already delighted IMPRO audiences two years ago, as well as Tarek Kannish (Syria) and Raouf Khelifa (Algeria) will first pass on their experience with these issues to the international cast in internal workshops. This is exactly the kind of IMPRO which is the reason why we, the Gorillas, organize it: it’s theater, as unpredictable as our life, which can also be as exhilarating in that people meet on stage and communicate across the barriers of language and culture; they are foreigners and approach each other, they misunderstand and understand. Everything that’s typical for life itself.

Wednesday, March 16 | 8pm
The Freedom Game

Will we become more creative as the rope of regulations and infringements of personal freedom becomes ever tighter? Or will the joy of movement wane at some point, in resignation of anticipatory obedience? Together with the audience, the improvisers will use the means of improvised theater to examine these interrelations in the context of society’s politics – albeit not exclusively – such as fear of terror, telecommunications data retention, xenophobia. Which conclusions will we come to? Is dictatorship funny in improv, but not so much in everyday life? It’s a theater experiment in two acts.

Thursday, March 17 | 8pm
A Place To Be

The issue everyone talks about has arrived at our festival, too. This evening will approach the issues of exodus and borders, limitations and freedom, by means of improvisation. Farah Shaer and Lucien Bourjeily from the Lebanon, who already delighted IMPRO audiences two years ago, as well as Tarek Kannish (Syria) and Raouf Khelifa (Algeria) will first pass on their experience with these issues to the international cast in internal workshops. This is exactly the kind of IMPRO which is the reason why we, the Gorillas, organize it: it’s theater, as unpredictable as our life, which can also be as exhilarating in that people meet on stage and communicate across the barriers of language and culture; they are foreigners and approach each other, they misunderstand and understand. Everything that’s typical for life itself.

Friday, March 18 | 8pm
Our Lives

Hardly any other art form lets the actors use their own life experience to directly impact what’s happening on stage like improvised theater does. Eight players from eight nations each get to draw one of the following subjects out of a hat: love, family, work, tradition, city, country, Christmas and food. As the directors, the players will examine their subject together with their fellow players and attempt to improvise and present what’s characteristic for their country in respect to this subject.

Saturday, March 19 | 8pm
Almost Ibsen & Speechless

Henrik Ibsen is dead. “What a pity”, some will say, “thank God” say others and some people will confess “I didn’t know“” Three of the best improvisers of Norway’s Det Andre Teatret, Torgny G. Aanderaa, Camilly Frey and Nils Petter Morland will improve a one act play based on Ibsen, which has never been written. It’s an improvised tragedy, based on the audience’s
suggestions, staged with appropriate costumes and set design, but without prescribed structure or dramatic rules.

Speechless is an evening full of poetry. It’s magical and fantastical in more than one sense: the two Columbian improvisers Daniel Orrantia and Felipe Ortiz, together with their congenial Canadian DJ Mama Cutsworth, will put a spell on their audience. Not a single word is spoken while the three of them develop improvised stories from the audience’s suggestions. Inspired by
silent films, improvised theater, pantomime and cirque moderne, this is a very special show, and unique each time.

 

Telion’s Garden (Dirty Granny Tales)

Dirty Granny Tales is an acoustic ensemble that narrates atmospheric stories. Their shows include puppet theater, dance performance and video animation projection, all of which, accompanied by the music, bring the story to life.

Influenced by the atmospheric fairytales of Tim Burton and Guilermo Del Toro, the melodies of Danny Elfman, the irony of Tiger Lillies, The Residents’ sterile landscape, Japanese Gothic theater and Butoh choreography, Dirty Granny Tales transports us to a magical dark world in their own extraordinary way.

Telion’s Garden, a tale influenced by migration, invades human instincts. Indignation and fear lead to desperate decisions. The pursuit of a perfect, flawless, godly world becomes the goal: a world that no flames can destroy, a world that has no room for hellish fire. Alas, the lack of fire can only create an emotionless world. Perfection is an illusion. Life is an inseparable bond of light and darkness. Respecting this bond is the only key to our survival.

 

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Dirty Granny Tales are:

Stavros Mitropoulos (Mouldbreath): Vocals, Guitar, Mandolin

Thanos Mitropoulos (Wormeaten Vagus): Bass, Blockflute, Backing Vocals

Dalai Theofilopoulou (Slimeskin): Cello, Backing Vocals

Uli Muehe (Heartbeat Zero):  Percussion, Backing Vocals

Ruby Wilson: Dance

Giulia del Balzi: Dance

 

Fear Industry

What are we afraid of?

2 performers and 1 mezzo-soprano reveal a living archive of 21st century fears: we now fear anything from killer bees to pedophiles, deadly diseases and online spying, avian flu, old age and mad cows, immigrants, anthrax, wrinkles, environmental collapse, and, lest we forget, terrorists.

Enthusiastically received by audience and critics during its world premiere as part of the opening festivities at the European Capital of Culture and Cyprus Fringe, the performance explores the concept of fear and its orchestrated manipulation through economic and political forces, its dissemination by the media and its subtle proliferation in contemporary society. The staging blends theater with elements from opera and Lieder and combines stand-up performance with stylized movement to walk the tightrope between our instinctive fears and those amplified and manipulated by our surroundings.

Watch the trailer here:

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“The atmospherically dense staging places us in a vigil state of recognizing a culture of fear everywhere in all its glorification and with all its personal, political and cultural dimension…  …Achim Wieland manages to move this performance in the category of art as a vehicle of reawakening.”  –ANEF Magazine, Christina Georghiou
“An invasive and pervasive testimony.” –TimeOut Magazine

The production as well as some sections of the European project tour are supported by the Cyprus Ministry of Education and Culture, the Cultural Funding Program of the City of Stuttgart, Diablog.eu, the German Embassy Nicosia, MITOS Center of Performing Arts, Kulturabteilung der Republik Zypern in Berlin,  the University of Nicosia, the Goethe-Institut and Columbia Shipmanagement

Featuring a post-performance discussion on Wednesday, February 17 as part of Theater Scoutings Berlin!

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Mars One – Venus Zero

a one-and-a-half-man show by A Fish Needs A Bicycle exploring the complications of modern masculinity and the recent outbreak of “Meninists”; Men’s Rights activists who troll the Internet to harass women and undermine their rights and progress.

We step into the world of our misguided protagonist, Mike, as he prepares his audition video for the “MARS ONE” space program while pondering the state of the Earth and his fear of the pending female takeover.

MARS ONE – VENUS ZERO sets out to highlight a real and ever present danger using storytelling, live music and emotional statistics.

Gem Andrews

is an English writer, director and professional musician from Liverpool, UK and has been creating work across the UK since 2004. Gem also works within the participatory arts sector between Berlin and Newcastle upon Tyne, UK; facilitating music and writing workshops for young offenders and is particularly interested in creating theater work through the voices of society’s most disenfranchised, in particular the LGBTQ community and the British working classes.

Currently living and working in the Neukölln and Kreuzberg districts of Berlin, Gem’s ongoing projects include writing the score for Chicken Pox Fox’s upcoming play Betsey Ann and promoting her new critically acclaimed album of original songs, Vancouver.

Richard Gibb

Richard Gibb is a theater maker and storyteller from Aberdeen, Scotland and has been creating work in the UK since 2008. In Newcastle, England he was a part of several theater companies that created original and thought provoking work ranging from walkabout festival performances to immersive storytelling theater. In England, Richard also worked for 6 years in the participatory arts sector, using the context of theater to engage with a wide range of people, from children with disabilities, to adults struggling with homelessness.

Richard is most interested in creating work that is original, relevant and engages with the community in which it exists. He currently lives in Prenzlauer Berg and works all over Berlin.

The Story of a Tiger

Nanzikambe Arts (Malawi)

Inspired by the 2011 Malawi protests against the government which resulted in 20 deaths and nearly 100 injuries, leading Malawi theater company Nanzikambe Arts responded with an adaptation of Dario Fo‘s 1978 play La storia della tigre.

Geoffrey Mbene Tiger - Photo by Philipp Hamedl Web

Originally inspired by Fo‘s 1975 trip to China, this dramatic monologue tells the story of a revolutionary Chinese solider wounded during Mao‘s Long March and left to die by his comrades. Nursed back to health by a mother tiger, he returns to civilization determined to cure its ills.

In Thokozani Kapiri‘s international adaptation intended for both African and European audiences, Geoffrey Mbene provides a tour-de-force performance relying heavily on pantomime and physical theater.

This production of The Story of a Tiger, commissioned by Theater Konstanz as part of its three-year partnership with Nanzikambe Arts – Crossing Borders, von See zu See – received 10 different presentations in Germany in 2012. It was also performed at Mwezi Wawala International Arts Festival, Blantyre Arts Festival and Malawi Cultural Arts Festival, in Austria and in Ireland in 2013.

Photo by Philipp Hamedl

Celebrity Bound

Do you want to be famous? Do you want to be a star?

Success. Access. Excess. All of it can be yours.

You were born famous. It’s just that no one knows it yet.

Fashion. Fortune. Freedom. All of it is yours.

You don’t create fame. Fame creates you.

But do you have what it takes?

The trick. The secret. The rule book.

USA bred writer-director, Catherine Duquette, has the secret. In her interactive, one-woman show, Celebrity Bound, she’ll show you how it’s done. Over the course of three nights, blending movement, video, scripted and improvised text, as well as audience interaction, a star will be born. Who will it be? Perhaps YOU are the next hot celebrity.

Watch the trailer here:

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In a time dominated by social media, rapid data consumption and curated identities, Berlin-based performer and writer <strong>Catherine Duquette</strong> strives for closeness and connection. She specializes in audience-performer relationships, movement and improvisational scores. Her performances exact moments of heightened awareness and honesty on stage in an effort to dissolve the barriers that shape how we perceive and (dis)connect with the world around us. Her solo work has been supported by MOMENTUM Berlin, English Theatre Berlin | International Performing Arts Center, a Fulbright Fellowship in Spain, the International Festival of the Delphic Games in Greece and the Subterranean Art House in Berkeley, California. Catherine studied theater at Arizona State University and the British American Drama Academy in Oxford, England. She earned her master’s degree in Performance Studies from New York University prior to relocating to Germany. Despite frequent moves, Catherine calls the Sonoran Desert of Arizona home.

Confirmation

Theatertreffen stückemarkt revisited

If you pinned me against a wall, I’d probably admit to being a liberal. Of course, pinning me against a wall is exactly what I’d expect from someone like you. A show about the gulfs we can’t talk across, and about the way we choose to see only the evidence that proves we’re right.

With an election looming and new voices appearing in mainstream UK politics, Chris Thorpe and The TEAM Artistic Director Rachel Chavkin examine the phenomenon of confirmation bias through an honorable dialogue, real and imagined, with political extremism. To find out how we believe what we believe and how we can end up so far apart.

Edinburgh Fringe First Award Winner – 2014

“Rachel Chavkin’s fast-moving, kinetic production offers us an absolutely compelling performance from a man who is fast becoming one of the most powerful performers in the UK” – The Scotsman

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Chris Thorpe | Writer and Performer

Chris is a writer and performer from Manchester. He is a founder member of Unlimited Theatre and also an artistic associate of Third Angel. He is making a cycle of solo pieces and continues to collaborate with companies like Slung Low, Forest Fringe, RashDash and Soup Collective, with whom he wrote and recorded the piece The Bomb On Mutannabbi Street Is Still Exploding, which has been permanently installed at the Imperial War Museum North. Chris’s plays have been produced worldwide and he has toured with Unlimited and Third Angel in Europe, Africa, Asia and the USA.

Recent projects include a trilogy of plays, Overdrama, House/Garden and Dead End for Portuguese company mala voadora, which continue to tour in Europe. He is also still touring in Third Angel’s show What I Heard About The World, recently to Poland, Brazil, Germany and Lebanon. He worked with poet Hannah Jane Walker in 2010 to make her solo show, This Is Just To Say. Hannah and Chris then worked together again to create The Oh Fuck Moment, which won a Fringe First at Edinburgh Fringe 2011. Their show, I Wish I Was Lonely, is still on the road. He also plays guitar in Lucy Ellinson’s political extreme noise project TORYCORE.

As a playwright, Chris recently worked with Hannah Jane Walker on a commission for The Unicorn Theatre in London, and revived his hit show, There Has Possibly Been An Incident, at the Stückemarkt in Berlin (following an invitation from playwright Simon Stephens). He also wrote Northern Stage’s Christmas Show, Dark Woods, Deep Snow in 2013. Chris is currently writing a new show for the Royal Court Theatre and a new project for the Unicorn Theatre as well as continuing work with Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre.

Rachel Chavkin | Director

Rachel is a Brooklyn-based director/dramaturg/writer, and the Artistic Director of collaborative ensemble the TEAM. Founded in 2004, the TEAM makes new work about the experience of living in America today, and aims to keep the brain, eyes, and heart of the audience constantly stimulated. Four time winners of the Fringe First, winner of the 2011 Herald Angel, the 2011 EIF Fringe Prize, and ranked Best of 2013 on three continents, the TEAM’s work includes Mission Drift, a new musical composed by Heather Christian that travels through 400 years of history in pursuit of the soul of American capitalism, and RoosevElvis, the story of a surreal road trip from the Badlands to Graceland. The TEAM has been presented at or received commissions from organizations all over New York (including the Public Theater, PS122, and the Bushwick Starr), nationally (including the Walker Art Center and the A.R.T.), internationally (including London’s National Theatre, the National Theatre of Scotland, the Barbican Centre, the Almeida Theatre, the Traverse Theatre, international festivals in Perth and Hong Kong, and the Salzburg Festival’s Young Directors Program).

In addition to her work with the TEAM, Rachel collaborates regularly with writers and composers on new work. Recent projects include Dave Malloy’s immersively staged electro-pop opera Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 (Kazino – commercial transfer; World Premiere: Ars Nova – New York Times, Time Out New York and New York Post Critics’ Picks, and Top Ten); storyteller James Monaco and composer Jerome Ellis’ collaboration Aaron/Marie; Meg Miroshnik’s The Fairytale Lives of Russian Girls (Yale Rep); Rick Burkhardt,

Alec Duffy and Dave Malloy’s Three Pianos (A.R.T., NYTW – Dec ’10/Jan ’11, Ontological Incubator Series – Feb/March ’10, 2010 Obie Award); and repeat collaborations with playwright/performer/activist Taylor Mac including his extravaganza The Lily’s Revenge (World Premiere, Act II) (HERE Arts Center, 2010 Obie Award) and Peace, co-written by Mac and Chavkin (Workshop, HERE Arts Center, 2007).

Rachel is a two-time Obie Winner, and was nominated as Best Director for both the Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel Awards for her work on Great Comet. Upcoming work includes multiple projects with Dave Malloy, adapting folk singer Anaïs Mitchell’s album Hadestown, a theatrical concert adaption of Mac Wellman’s intergalactic Ohio-based novel Annie Salem in collaboration with composer Heather Christian, and the TEAM’s multigenerational cover band project, Primer for a Failed Superpower.

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IMPRO 2015

Over the years, IMPRO has become one of the largest and one of the most important festivals of its kind in Europe.

141209_IMPRO2015_titel.inddIn 2015 as well, Die Gorillas have invited improv artists from 13 different countries to improvise together. The 14th edition of IMPRO will be held from March 13-22, 2015 and once again, we are delighted to serve as one of the festival’s hubs and bring you three different shows, including a very special event: the festival ensemble will improvise the story of a Berlin family from the 1920s to the present over six consecutive nights: The Hoffmanns – A Berlin Family Story. A different year in the family story will be presented each night. 1925 will be followed by 1937, 1955, 1970, 1990 and end in the year 2015. The audience will accompany a Berlin family on a very special journey through time over multiple generations. Even Die Gorillas are excited to see how this improvised family saga will turn out!

Saturday, March 14 | 8pm
The National Theatre of the World: The SCript Tease Project

Naomi Snieckus of The National Theatre of the World from Toronto has been taking Berlin audiences by storm since her first shows at IMPRO 2012 – not only with her precise, powerful, imaginative acting, but also with her varied theatrical forms of expression. For the SCript Tease Project, a playwright will write the first lines of dialogue for her and one actor from the festival cast. Live in front of the audience they will open an envelope whose content is foreign to them, read the beginning of a play which was written for them and improvise the entire play for the rest of the evening.

Sunday, March 15 | 8pm
Marko Mayerl: Mon nom est Némo (In French with English and German subtitles)

IMPRO2015_Promo_MonnomestNemo_RitaMayerl-16ea1623This is the first scripted, non-improvised theater performance that we’ve ever presented during the 14 years of our festival – the focus of this solo is the very international family history of Marko Mayerl of Strasbourg, whose ancestors are from Finland, Germany, Russia and France. A father tells his son who is in hospital the story of their family. It’s an odyssey spanning several European epochs which makes the son forget that he is seriously ill. A Finnish woman marries a Russian, who defies his father’s wish for him to become an orthodox priest. A Frenchwoman, pregnant with her first child, marries a pilot of the German air force while World War II is raging. This autobiographical play, full of tenderness and humor, prompts us to take a look at how we deal with our own family history. Which part of our heritage is acceptable for us to take on, which part do we reject and why?

March 16 – 21 | 8pm
Festival Ensemble: The Hoffmanns – A Berlin Family Story

The name is a given: the Hoffmanns. The place: Berlin. The time: between 1925 and today. Improvising the story of this family, that’s the big challenge for the cast of IMPRO 2015. For the first time, our festival will present a continuous improvisation spanning six nights, supported by the intellectual assistance of the audience. Mignon Remé (Hamburg), Randy Dixon (USA) and Naomi Snieckus (Canada) will each be the director of two nights, Dan Richter (Berlin) will chronicle what’s happening on stage and make sure everyone is on the same page. Join us for this amazing experiment which further explores the possibilities of improvised theater.

Promo pics: Matthias Flührer / Nemo pic: Rita Mayerl