Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm

“The conveyor belts, the conveyor belts!” – The German labour movement as a discourse machine with individual human beings caught up in its cogs. With a large choir of Frankfurt voices and four solo performers – Stereo Total singer Françoise Cactus, Hamburger-Schule performer Bernadette La Hengst, the Ingenious Dilettante Frieder Butzmann and free jazz pioneer Sven-Åke Johansson – Oliver Augst and John Birke deconstruct the concept of work. From sweat and red-hot iron in the “City of a Thousand Fires” to soft skills and 3D printers in our post-industrial information society. All that remains is the work ethic as an integral part of our cultural identity, in all other respects lack of work compels us to search for new concepts: “We don’t need work, we always have something to do”, sings Bernadette La Hengst.

With Frieder Butzmann, Françoise Cactus, Bernadette La Hengst, Sven-Åke Johansson and a large speaking choir * Text: John Birke * Composition, Set: Oliver Augst * Directed by: Augst/Birke * Live Mix: Marcel Daemgen * Production manager: Jenny Flügge * Choral direction: Marcus Rüdel * Text: „Der gespaltene Mensch“ by Bruno Schönlank, 1927 * A textXTND, Künstlerhaus Mousonturm and Musiktheater im Revier (MIR) Gelsenkirchen co-production * Funded by the City of Frankfurt am Main, Hessian Ministery for Science and Art, Aventis Foundation, Innovationsfonds Baden-Württemberg * In collaboration with hr2 Kultur/SWR and the Alte Feuerwache Mannheim.

Mon. 21.10., 7.00 p.m.

WARM UP

For all those, who find the transition from everyday life to the theatre somewhat too sudden, we now have an alternative: what has already been tried and tested for dance productions – that dancers and choreographers offer a special warm-up training for spectators one hour before the show – will now be opened up this month to include music theatre with members of the production “Stadt der 1000 Feuer”. Unlike typical introductory events, this is a chance to personally explore aspects of musicality, acting and physicality based on very concrete examples and exercises. After the warm-up, there will still be enough time to freshen up before the show begins.