When I read that the new theater piece Do the Right Thing by Ariel Efraim Ashbel was heavily inspired by Bauhaus I was already sold! Already I imagined the second coming of Oskar Schlemmer’s iconic Triadic Ballet. And indeed you will find a lot of references in the piece: costumes that are more objects than garments, sharp geometric shapes, bold prime colors, the grid pattern on the floor. Just like Schlemmer Ashbel questions the norms of theater of the time. His piece is so abstract, blurring the lines between performers, objects, lights, and the stage – everything seems to have an equal weight in the whole picture. While watching the piece it is all up to you to either just enjoy the almost ritualistic successions of movements in a space filled with color gradients that keep shifting back and forth, or you try to decipher the embedded details of the abstracted message of the title that you will find scattered all over the piece. Either way, you will be drawn in by powerful visuals and an even more captivating live soundtrack by Hacklander \ Hatam.
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by Frank | Theater
Meet Protectorama. She has the blue skin of Smurfette, a red-haired wig from Tori Amos, a sporty avant-gardistic dress by Bernhard Willhelm and crazy high red latex heels stolen from Lady Gaga. She is a world-healing witch and she lives in the world-healing forrest and is mostly babbling on about her world-healing ritual that involves a lot of cell phone LED lights and the random contents of a couple of Kinder surprise eggs. Despite all this extravaganza she talks like a dude.
Last Saturday the Hebbel theatre transformed its HAU1 and HAU2 houses into a multi-disciplinary wonderland of stage art. While the main building at HAU1 was taken over by the performance group basso who transformed it into a Funeral Charade of Poses with multiple installations and performances taking place all over the building, the HAU2 was hosting several experimental performances by young artists from different schools and classes, including students from the Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main and from the Institut für Raumexperimente by Olafur Eliasson, UdK Berlin and many more.
A lot of crazy impressions of this magical night, including many more of the lovely Protectorama, right after the jump – on 2 pages…
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by Frank | Theater
