Concept: Gob Squad / Devised by: Oska Melina Borcherding, Johanna Freiburg, Mmakgosi Kgabi, Sean Patten, Sharon Smith, Berit Stumpf, Sarah Thom, Bastian Trost, und Simon Will / Performed by: Passant*innen und vier der oben Genannten / Composition and Sound Design: Manuela Schininà / Live Sound Design and Sound Technician: Catalina Fernandez Bühnenbild: Amina Nouns / Set Design: Amina Nouns / Costumes: Emma Cattell, Sarah Thom / Lighting Design and Technical Management: Chris Umney / Dramaturgy and Production: Christina Runge / Live-Translation Berlin: PANTHEA – Irina Bondas / Artistic Assistance: Helene von Schirach, Anna Zrenner / Set and Costumes Assistance: Carla Lou Schäfer / Intern: Jola Hauschild / Company Management Team: Heleen De Boever, Caroline Gentz, Talea Schuré, Grischa Schwiegk / With special thanks to: Sladja Blazan
Gob Squad
News from Beyond
- Theatre
German /
English /
approx. 90 min.
“we would never leave the world like this. that’s why we put you here. you hear us?” – Alexis Pauline Gumbs, “Dub: Finding Ceremony”
In their latest production, Gob Squad use their phones to send live voice messages from the urban space into the dark void of the theatre. Cut off from the world beyond, the audience witnesses a 21st century seance. A sparse landscape of invisible spirits manifest news and sonic evidence of truths that seem to have disappeared from our daily lives, despite being all around us. Gob Squad act as mediums who wander between two worlds in order to establish contact and break through to the other side. On their journeys, details such as items discarded by the roadside become just as significant as a change in temperature or atmospheric conditions. Encounters with things, animals and plants provide answers to questions, passers-by give clues to the unresolved. Gradually the incoming messages condense into a collage of sounds, filling the empty stage and developing a life of their own. Eventually items and spirits emerge from the fog and make the worlds appear more permeable through their appearance. In the flash of the possibility of a real exchange, what feels far away suddenly comes very close to us and becomes a tangible moment of the here and now.
“News from Beyond” invites us to overcome barriers of time and space and ‘seeing is believing’. What separates us? And who or what do we want to connect with? Which voices do we dare to follow? And can we exorcise the ghosts of our present to imagine a reconnected future?
Cast
Dates
Current
Notes:
5.2.+7.2.: With English live translation
6.2.+8.2.: With German live translation
Credits
Production: Gob Squad. Co-production: HAU Hebbel am Ufer Berlin, FFT Düsseldorf, Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm, Kanuti Gildi SAAL Tallinn. Funded by: Hauptstadtkulturfonds, Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion. Supported by: theaterhaus berlin.
Gob Squad Arts Collective is regularly funded within concept funding 2024 – 2027 Berlin, Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion.
Location
HAU1
Stresemannstr. 29, 10963 BerlinThere are two marked parking spots in front of the building. Access to the Parkett by means of a separate entrance with lift when necessary. Barrier-free restroom facilities are available. Tickets for wheelchair users and accompanying persons can be booked via the ticketing system. If you need any help, please contact our Ticketing & Service team at +49 (0)30 259004-27 or send us an email at
tickets@hebbel-am-ufer.de.
