photo: Garrett Davis/capture imaging
When you go to the theater most of the time your role will be that of the audience. You sit there and watch a bunch of excentric crazy people running around naked and screaming on stage. Well, that’s my very simplistic description of going to theater in Berlin 😉 But what if you have a different role at your next theater visit? What if you become part of the performance? That’s an experience that will certainly change your view on theater.
The piece Western Society by the famous and beloved Berlin-based theater company Gob Squad is basically an ongoing re-enactment of one of the most boring and ordinary youtube videos of a family gathering in front of the TV set and watching something while going on about their business in the background. Of course the piece dives way deeper into the behavior, norms, traditions and conflicts of our modern society, but I would like to leave that up to you to discover it.
When I was watching this piece a few months ago I was pretty puzzled when right in the beginning of the play one of the actors threw a plush animal in my face and asked me to come down to the stage and participate in the performance. Oups, I was not exactly expecting that. I was than charmingly introduced into the clever system of headset-based prompting by none other than Tatiana Saphie, star of our online comedy The Fruit Salad, who was also one of the actors in Western Society. And than I found myself among the actors and other members of the audience right in the middle of the theater set re-enacting the living room scene while the main actors gave me instructions what to do and what to say through my ear piece. It was certainly an unexpected and exciting experience. After the jump there are some photos of the piece and a short extract from the recording of the show with me in it. It looks rather weird, but it was really fun and I had the honor of having the only speaking role of the guests so that was extra cool.
UPDATE: Western Society by Gob Squad is playing again this weekend on March 17-19, 2018 at HAU in Kreuzberg. Don’t miss it and reach for those flying plush animals!
photos: David Baltzer
Western Society
by God Squad with Johanna Freiburg, Sean Patten, Damian Rebgetz, Tatiana Saphir, Sharon Smith, Berit Stumpf, Sarah Thom, Bastian Trost, Simon Wil
Saturday November 17, 2014, 21h
Sunday November 18 & Monday November 19, 2014, 20h
Hebbel am Ufer, HAU2
Hallesches Ufer 32
10963 Berlin
