Doppelgänger / Doppelganger

Where do we begin? Literally where do we, the thing that we think of as us, and the thing that you think of as you, where does that begin? 

“Doppelgänger/Doppelganger” is a journey down the rabbit hole into a hall of mirrors where everything we believe ourselves to be – unique and unmistakable – starts to unravel and multiply. In a world of duplication and projection, of forgetting and remembering, and of eternal self-mythologising, the performers of Gob Squad find themselves stuck in a seemingly endless party. But no one seems to remember what exactly there is to celebrate. Wasn’t it someone’s birthday? There’s cake and balloons, and everything is captured on camera: someone has taken a photograph, and it looks like they’re having a good time.

Trapped in a party loop, Gob Squad turns to the audience for reasons to celebrate, searching for possible doppelgangers, to expand and confront themselves, to switch off entirely or to dissolve into many. The dance with the self begins but who is leading whom here, and through whose story? And who decides what happens next?

The party tips over into a surreal vision full of unexpected twists, in which different identities and voices fight relentlessly to be heard, and our shared responsibility for something that is greater than ourselves strikes us as a utopian déjà vu.

The world premiere of Doppelgänger/Doppelganger will be on 18th June 2026 as part of Wiener Festwochen I Freie Republik Wien.