Belated Preparations for a New Generation based on Lear
"Better thou, hadst not been born than not to have pleased me better." (King Lear to his daughter)
"Daddy's working boots have filled their obligation." (Dolly Parton about her father´s shoes)
She She Pop goes to work on the dramatic canon: In the first scene of Shakespeare's "King Lear", the old man makes an attempt to leave his kingdom to his three daughters and thereby to agree on his retirement arrangement - a plan that fails violently. Small wonder, as out of all the barter deals we have ever been involved in, the one between the generations is the most complicated and obscure one. Value and countervalue (i.e. money and love) are always veiled, nobody ever officially agreed on terms of this exchange. This is the case for almost all agreements between generations: they are foul. They never happened. They do not exist. The space that is to be cleared out is brimful with dates and details, jewellery and family trees, legal successions, hereditary diseases, loving vows, home care plans, gas receipts, and a sense of guilt – all of them subjects of public negotiations between daughters and their fathers.
In "Testament" She She Pop ask their fathers to join them on stage. The theater becomes a hearing room for a utopian process: equilibrium between generations.
Dates
March 15th - 18th, 2011
»Hebbel am Ufer Berlin
April 13th - 14th, 2012
with english and corean subtitles
»Festival Bo:m Seoul
May 9th - 11th, 2012
with english and french subtitles
»Le Grand T Nantes
»TU Nantes
Archive
Premiere: February 25th, 2010, HAU 2 Berlin www.hebbel-am-ufer.de
February 2010, HAU 2 www.hebbel-am-ufer.de
March 2010, Kampnagel Hamburg www.kampnagel.de
May 2010, Theaterhaus Stuttgart www.theaterhaus.com
May 2010, HAU 2 Berlin www.hebbel-am-ufer.de
June 2010, FFT Düsseldorf www.forum-freies-theater.de
October 2010, INKONST Malmö, SWE www.inkonst.com
October 2010, Pustervik Göteborg, SWE www.pustervik.goteborg.se
October 2010, Festival FAVORITEN Dortmund www.favoriten2010.de
November 2010, brut Wien www.brut-wien.at
December 2010, HAU 2 Berlin www.hebbel-am-ufer.de
January 2011, Mousonturm Frankfurt/M. www.mousonturm.de
February 2011, KAAT Yokohama, Festival of International Independent Theatre - Vol 1: Germany www.tpam.or.jp/2011/e/cooperated www.drifters-intl.org
April 2011, HAU 2 Berlin, Awarding of the Friedrich-Luft Prize www.hebbel-am-ufer.de
April 2011, Schwankhalle Bremen www.schwankhalle.de
May 2011, HAU 2 Berlin, Theatertreffen www.hebbel-am-ufer.de www.berliner-festspiele.de
May 2011, Festival a/d Werf Utrecht www.festivalaandewerf.nl
June 2011, HAU 2 Berlin www.hebbel-am-ufer.de
June 2011, Kaserne Basel www.kaserne-basel.ch
June/July 2011, Festival Impulse www.festivalimpulse.de
August 2011, Zürcher Theater Spektakel www.theaterspektakel.ch
August 2011, STAGE Festival Helsinki www.korjaamo.fi
September 2011, NO99 Straw Theatre Tallinn www.pohuteater.no99.ee
October 2011, Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival www.dublintheatrefestival.com
October 2011, Festival Politik im Freien Theater Dresden www.politikimfreientheater.de
November 2011, Festival euro-scene Leipzig www.euro-scene.de
November 2011, Prager Theaterfestival deutscher Sprache Prag www.theater.cz
December 2011, Festival SpielArt München www.spielart.org
Dezember 2011, Theaterhaus Stuttgart, www.theaterhaus.com
Dezember 2011, 14th - 15th, TAK Theater Liechtenstein www.tak.li
Credits
Concept: She She Pop. With Sebastian and Joachim Bark, Fanni and Peter Halmburger, Lisa Lucassen, Mieke und Manfred Matzke, Ilia und Theo Papatheodorou.
Stage: SSP und Sandra Fox. Costumes: Lea Søvsø. Music: Christopher Uhe. Documentation: Bianca Schemel. Light: Sven Nichterlein. Sound: Florian Fischer. Assistant and Dramaturgical Advice: Kaja Jakstat. Hospitation: Laura Lo Zito. Graphic: Tobias Trost. Production and PR: ehrliche arbeit. Administration: Elke Weber
A She She Pop production. In Co-Production with the Hebbel am Ufer Berlin, Kampnagel Hamburg and FFT Düsseldorf. Funded by the City of Berlin, the City of Hamburg and the Fonds Darstellende Künste e.V.
Awards
Invited for Theatertreffen Berlin 2011.
Invited for nachtkritik Theatertreffen 2011.
Winner of the Friedrich-Luft-Preis
Winner of the Wild Card of Theaterfestival Favoriten 2010
Winner of "Best Guest-Performance 2010“ by "Göteborgs-Posten" (Schweden)
Winner of the Goethe-Institut-Preis at Impulse Festival 2011
Radio Play Adaptation
Radio Play Adaptation by and with She She Pop & their fathers
Directed by: She She Pop. Production: DKultur 2011. Length: ca. 54'30
Broadcast premiere: September 19th, 2011 at 00:05
http://www.dradio.de/dkultur/programmtipp/freispiel/1524635/
Next broadcast: December, 21st, 2011 at 8 pm, Schweizer Radio DRS 2
Trailer
Press
"Rarely do the great questions of life present themselves on stage so spirited and full of feeling , so touching and allusive... Absolutely remarkable."
Dirk Pilz, NZZ Online. June, 1st, 2011
www.nzz.ch/nachrichten/kultur/aktuell/es_stimmt_etwas_nicht_in_diesen_zeiten_1.10682002.html
"I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU
For twelve years now, the performance collective SHE SHE POP has transformed issues of (also) personal meaning to them into theater. Their most recent production “Testament” is a particularly well-made and successful example of this."
Eva Behrendt, Theater heute, 06/ 2010
"Once the first “Lear” scene is read, the beautiful delirium, which She She Pop so expertly know how to work with, sneaks its way onto the stage… The She She Pop fraud is less about lying than about dithering. Dithering between process and product, discussion and text, intimacy and distance... In the personal conversations, the piece surprisingly returns over and over again to precisely those leitmotifs, which propel the old drama forward. “Testament” offers hundreds of such possible misunderstandings."
Tobi Müller, Frankfurter Rundschau, February 27th, 2010
http://www.fr-online.de/in_und_ausland/kultur_und_medien/feuilleton/2360123_She-She-Pops-pfiffiges-Berliner-Testament-Echter-Schwindel.html
"courageous, honest and intelligent... a big hit."
Klaus Witzeling, Hamburger Abendblatt, March 9th, 2010
http://www.abendblatt.de/kultur-live/article1412276/Auge-in-Auge-mit-den-Vaetern.html
This piece has been celebrated and for good reasons, as can be stated after the Zurich premiere of „Testament“ by She She Pop and their fathers. It stirred the audience considerably and set a first highlight at the Theaterspektakel.
Claudio Steiger, NZZ, August, 20th, 2011
http://www.nzz.ch/nachrichten/kultur/buehne/king_lear_und_wir_alle_1.11980291.html
