GOODBYE BERLIN by Constanza Macras / Dorky Park
Inspired by Isherwood’s semi-autobiographical novel “Goodbye to Berlin” and the essay “Watching Weimar Dance” by Kate Elswit, the show explores an amoral universe of intoxicating spectacle. Set in a liminal space that moves back and forth between the turbulent Germany of the Weimar Republic and the present, Goodbye Berlin explores the legacy of dance makers of that time such as Kurt Jooss and Valeska Gert to question representations of death, the devastation of war but also its fascist glorifications. The show confronts overwhelming contradictions and apocalyptic visions with the palatable forms of a pure spectacle. It unfolds as “a nightmarish hall of mirrors of political and social anxiety”: a cabaret.
As the world spins dangerously forward, the stage becomes home to subversive and counter-cultural rituals. These rituals are in turn our artistic repertoire, our staged patrimony. But are they only good for suspending our machinations about the rise of reactionary politics in an entertained bliss? Or can they actually counteract the depressed feelings of our inability to act and spark a mobilization against increasingly encroaching powers?
Is pleasure still possible, not instead of hope, but in addition to it?
Goodbye Berlin is a journey through the fascinating aesthetics that aim for ecstasy and fantasize with death.
By and with Candaş Baş, Alexandra Bódi, Emil Bordás, Campbell Caspary, Chloe Chua, Oksana Chupryniuk, Deborah Dalla Valle, Fernanda Farah, WooSang Jeon, Moritz Lucht, Thulani Lord Mgidi, Miki Shoji, Shiori Sumikawa, Steph Quinci
Concept, direction & choreography Constanza Macras
Dramaturgy Carmen Mehnert, Tamara Saphir, Lili Hering
Stage design Simon Lesemann
Costume design Slavna Martinovic
Music Robert Lippok
Lighting design Denise Potratzk
Live camera Pablo Villar
Arrangement for “Orchestral Fight Suite” Katrin Schüler-Springorum
Assistant director Jonas Pfeifer
Stage assistance Amir Baltić, Anne Schartmann
Costume assistance Jasmin Knitter, Kanstantsin Sinkevich
Stage management Maria Bergel
Directing intern(s) Hollie Bertermann, Fanny Kempter, Anastasia Oliviera, Rike Schultze
Stage intern(s) Inés Peláez
Costume intern(s) Ida Opel, Zofia Polak, Emma Roudine
Head of stage Jan Krüger
Technical direction Dorky Park Miloš Vujković
Technical assistance Dorky Park Adrian Heveling, Aria Gilani
Sound Tobias Gringel
Video Nicolas Keil
Light Sascha Grohmann
Props Eike Grögel
Masκs and make-up Spyridon Prosoparis
Choreography repetiteur and company trainer Nicola Mascia
Pole dance trainer Chloe Chua
Company management Dorky Park Paulina Borda
Production managent Dorky Park Alisa Aleshchenko
Production Dorky Park Vicky Kouvaraki
Production assistant Dorky Park Volha Vishniova
Goodbye Berlin quotes earlier works by Constanza Macras / Dorky Park:
DRAMA, The Future, Der Palast, The West
Stage desing Simon Lesemann, Alissa Kolbusch, Laura Gamberg, Chika Takabayashi
Costume design Eleonore Carrière, Alison Saunders, Roman Handt
International distribution PLAN B – Creative Agency for Performing Arts
A coproduction with Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz
