Is Western theater still contemporary? Its components are fundamentally involved in power and sovereignty: be it the hero figure, who as an individual with the power to act must decide the course of events; or how linearly temporality is negotiated on stage and how principles are thereby perpetuated that cannot be separated from processes of economization and colonization. These ‘sovereignty effects’ of theater become visible especially in the wake of the climate and corona crisis, which makes us aware of our fragility. How can an alternative approach to the practices of theater-making be found – what would be the potentials of a ‘theater of the unsovereign’ instead?
Sebastian Blasius and his team experimentally approach the configuration of such an alternative theater model. Texts by the author Björn SC Deigner juxtapose the trials on stage with very concrete topics such as Ukraine, Europe and flight. The five etudes nevertheless remain fragile with a political claim; they unsettle the gaze in order to seek a community of the vulnerable in seeing. An ‘operation on the open heart’ of the theater.
The director, choreographer and theater scholar Sebastian Blasius realizes projects at the interface of performing, visual and acoustic arts. At Ballhaus Ost, he most recently showed »Die Räuber der Geschichte«.
On Nov. 25, 2022, following the performance, there will be a conversation with the team, »Vom Versuch, Theater von Fragilität ausgehend zu denken,« moderated by Dr. Marcus Quent (University of the Arts, Berlin).
A production by Sebastian Blasius in cooperation with Ballhaus Ost. Supported by the Hauptstadtkulturfonds.
