Blog Archive

2016 EXP(L)O(RE)

New this year is ExpLoRE, a format for newcomers, shorter performances and work-in-progress. Spend an entire afternoon taking in nine performances on stage, in dressing rooms and in our beautiful courtyard.

In between the performances, you can enjoy fantastic food, luxurious libations and magnificent music by international, Berlin-based musicians.

2pm (Studio) WORK IN PROGRESS by 6 Hours Theatre Group
Directed by Amy Nolan (Ireland) | Written by Alejandro Niklison (Argentina) | With Alejandro Niklison, Alan Ward (Australia) and Jinzhao Wang (China)

2:45pm (Main Stage) RIGHT ON! by Daniela Marcozzi
Concept, Performance and Co-Direction by Daniela Marcozzi (Italy) | Co-Direction and Artistic Collaboration by Peter Rose (USA)

3:30pm (Studio) ZYGOTE CRISIS by Zoë Erwin-Longstaff
Written and Directed by Zoë Erwin-Longstaff (Canada)

4:15pm (Main Stage) IVO by 3LK
Written by Billy MacKinnon (Scotland) | Directed by Emily Kuhnke (Germany) | Performed by Tizo All (Brazil)

5pm (Studio) BABA by Gabrielle Miller
With Gabrielle Miller (Australia), Lola Fonseque (France), Zoya Godoroja-Prieckaerts (Australia/Russia) and Youka Snell (Australia, Japan)

5:45pm (Main Stage) BRUTAL ARCHITECTURE by Tegan Ritz McDuffie
Text by Keller Easterling (USA) | Directed by Tegan Ritz McDuffie (USA) | Design by Julius Zimmermann (Germany) | With Sura Hertzberg (USA), Marcus O’Shea (Australia), Nadine Trushina (Russia)

Eight individual performances THIS IS MINE. WHAT’S YOURS? by Lauren Hart
Devised and Performed by Lauren Hart (England) | Project Management by Normen Skok (Germany)

Durational (Dressing Room) HAPPINESS IS MORE IMPORTANT TO ME THAN ART by Kate McCane
Created and Performed by Kate McCane (Australia) | Found Sound Compiled, Arranged and Edited by Kate McCane

Durational (Dressing Room) ANCHORS by Jennifer Williams
Jennifer Williams (Australia)

The Present Imperfect

This is a coming of age story. At age 47.

Once upon a time, there was an Italian adventurer who sailed the Pacific and fell in love with a Tongan princess. They moved to Australia, where they raised a family to help demystify the culture (sport) and food (vegemite) shock. It took them 20 years and 4 children to begin to understand the language (lingo). One of their daughters was very interested in drama and language and bossing people around. She grew up to be a talented and exciting young actress and was headed for glory…just when life happened. Dammit!

That girl is now an ESL (English as a second language) teacher in Berlin who has taught the present perfect tense over and over for/during/since the past 200 years and is now well and truly over it.

Fiona is a full time professional foreigner, wife and mother who is sometimes also an actor, writer and English teacher. She has always tried to be respectful and forgiving, and understanding, and patient and tolerant and knowledgeable about her own cultures and her husband’s culture and each of her kids’ cultures, and of her new culture with its many rules; as well as being mindful of her kid’s feelings, and her neighbors feelings and even the feelings of her old drama school classmate Cate Blanchett. But now…she’s over it!

In this uplifting, amusing and soul searching autobiographic solo show, Fiona takes us on a world tour of her extremely questionable, crazy and ever-challenging life. Journeying through some of her favorite countries and introducing us to a myriad of delicious characters she reveals some of her most colorful stories and demonstrates why she is just so over teaching the present perfect, learning German articles, parenting third culture kids and teenagers in Berlin, dealing with female civil servants in Italy, attending international school PTA meetings in India…and saying “Si” to Cate’s stupid Armani ad. She is definitely over that!

Now work in groups to the find examples of the present perfect tense, the meaning of the phrasal verb “I’m over it” and any hints of desperation in the above life description.

The ReWilding Project

To “rewild” is to re-connect to the wild within—to see ourselves not as separate from nature but as a part of nature. It is to defy our life-long experience of domestication, what we know, and how things should be.

The ReWilding Project is an interdisciplinary solo performance, featuring text, dance, live music and some technology. It is one woman’s quest to tackle our modern neurosis, sense of loss and search for hope – with a dose of humor.

Nearly every day we are bombarded with an onslaught of horrific news feeds and dire scientific prognoses:

“Arctic ice melting faster and earlier as scientists demand action”, The Guardian
“50% of all species have disappeared in the past 20 years,” World Wildlife Fund

How do we, amidst the affluence of Western Europe, respond to these seemingly far-removed crises? How do the body and psyche of the individual, human mammal respond to the worldwide devastation of our natural environment? Perhaps dolphins have the answers to what we are looking for.

NippleJesus

by Nick Hornby

Art? Enjoy. Destroy.

“Nothing much happened at first .. After about an hour, I got my first nutter.”

ETB20150710_NippleJesus with Jesse Ingman 1(c)photo by Casey Tower He doesn´t know a thing about art. But being a former bouncer, Dave gets hired to guard a controversial piece of art. “Jesus on the Cross” is ten feet high by six feet wide and was created in a, well, let’s say, different sort of way. There are people out there who won´t like it, and there are many ways of looking at it. While Dave develops his own relation to art and this particular piece, he begins defending it against his wife, the media and a whole bunch of religious fanatics. Then the shit hits the fan. In the end, his troubles come from an unexpected side.

“It’s a great play – Jesse does a fantastic job – he’s so gloriously angry at times – and it’s a riveting play, entertaining, fast-paced, in fact it’s over so quickly that you’re almost disappointed it’s finished.” Jacinta Nandi / TAZ

Nick Hornby´s NippleJesus is a warm and funny examination of our personal perspectives on modern art and the irreverent ways of the contemporary art world . What do we make of art and why? And who gets to decide what is art and what is not? How manipulative is the art world? Nick Hornby has a few interesting suggestions.

Jesse Inman is originally from Birmingham / UK and moved to Germany in 2003. Since then he has worked as a freelance actor and has been involved in various productions at English Theatre Berlin, the most recent of which was Playing Sandwiches, a part of Alan Bennett´s Talking Heads series. Since 2006 he has been working with the Swiss theater company FAR A DAY CAGE, has been an ensemble actor at Theater Basel from 2012 to 2015, and since 2015 is an ensemble member at Schauspielhaus Wien. Along side theater work he has also been involved in various films such as Julie Delpy’s Countess and Lars von Triers Nymphomaniac.

Nick Hornby is an English writer born in 1957 in Surrey. He studied English at Jesus College, Cambridge. His first book, Fever Pitch (1992), was a huge success, followed by High Fidelity (1995) which was made into a film starring John Cusack and a Broadway musical. About a Boy, also adapted into a film starring Hugh Grant, came out in 1998. Hornby´s other novels are How to be Good (2001), A Long Way Down (2005), Slam (2007), Juliet, Naked (2009) and Funny Girl (2014). His short story collection includes Faith (1998), Not a Star (2000) and Otherwise Pandemonium (2005). The film adaptation of Colm Tóibín´s novel Brooklyn for which Hornby wrote the screenplay was released in 2015. He has written numerous essays mostly on music and literature. Nick Hornby received, amongst numerous other awards and prizes, an Oscar nomination for his screenplay for Lone Scherfig´s film An Education (2009). He has been given the name “The maestro of the male confessional” for the brilliant portrayal of his male characters in his novels.

Pics: Jesse Inman as Dave: Casey Tower / Nick Hornby: Geraint Lewis

Torrents of Rapture

Something’s off with Reggie’s boyfriend. In a fit of protectiveness(?) he’s just locked him in the bathroom like Rapunzel. Miserable and betrayed, Reggie finds solace in his friends – the hairdryer, drill, radio and toilet paper – as well the life affirming classic Torrent of Rapture.

Wildly romantic, idealized and inaccurate it seems to mirror his life exactly until it becomes clear that having a movie for a therapist is not always a good idea. As his world crumbles around him, Reggie finds his inner superhero emerging victorious from the ruins of his shattered dreams.

Told through bad ballet and puppetry, this is Brief Encounter meets Saving Private Ryan via Monty Python style cinema, film music, animation and live song. Torrents of Rapture fuses these sumptuous elements together as it explores the social, civil and human rights themes celebrating the bravery and sacrifice of the men and women who have fought for LGBT equality over the past 150 years. The show leaves you overwhelmed, singing and shaking with …Torrents of Rapture.

Torrents of Rapture  was created by Dugald Ferguson  in co-production with Norwich Pride and Norwich Arts Centre. Supported by Arts Council England