Impulse Theater Biennale 2013 program online!
6 May 2013
This year Impulse is presenting a total of 14 outstanding productions by artists in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
Premieres and Co-productions
Five of a total of fourteen productions have their origins in the first Open Call that Impulse initiated: two as co-produced premieres (“Something for the Fans” by Damian Rebgetz and “Revolution Vacuum” by Tamer Yiğit/Branka Prlić), one co-produced adaptation (Bernadette La Hengst’s “Bedingungsloses Grundeinsingen” with the citizens of Bochum) and two more as touring productions (“Der (kommende) Aufstand nach Friedrich Schiller)” by andcompany&Co. and “Schützen” by Cecilie Ullerup Schmidt/Matthias Meppelink).
In addition to this, there is the commissioned work “Two Minutes of Standstill” by Yael Bartana, as well as the newly conceived Impulse version of Gesine Danckwart’s “Chez Icke.”
With this new working method, Impulse is taking account of the changes in the independent scene over the last few years–and also signaling support for artistic work in difficult cultural-political times.
A wide variety of artistic signatures
The wide range of how contemporary theater defines itself can be seen in the variety of works at this year’s festival. While deufert&plischke, with their “Entropic Institute Mülheim” and “Alles” by Showcase Beat Le Mot explode ordinary time limits and the restricted narratives of a normal evening at the theater, Yael Bartana’s “Two Minutes of Standstill” in fact only lasts two minutes.
Hofmann&Lindholm, with their silhouette theater “Nebenschauplätze Nr. 1: Das 20. Jahrhundert,” and andcompany&Co., with their wild battle of associations, use a variety of artistic means to bring the past into the present. With “Graz Alexanderplatz“ by the Austrian Theater im Bahnhof and with „Schubladen“ by She She Pop they look for cultural influences in individual biographies – while Bernadette La Hengst (“Bedingungsloses Grundeinsingen”) and the Swiss Theater HORA with “Disabled Theater,” directed by Jérôme Bel, focus on different facets of society and politics in the present.
Conspicuously, many of the productions in the festival have music as a central component. In Christian Garcia’s “Teenage Lobotomy” it becomes the protagonist and reflects the role that it plays for our pop-cultural identity. In Gesine Danckwart’s staging of the bar “Chez Icke” as well, it pushes its way into the center when the cantina becomes the stage. Futhermore, this work stands for Impulse’s broadly conceived take on theater and for the wide variety of artistic signatures in the festival. “Chez Icke” is both a notable staging invited as a guest performance, and at the same time the festival’s center. And it links the Impulse cities together, both in reality and virtually.
