Multi-generational performance with local guests who had or aspire to have a life on stage.
Creation is the realm of gods and artists, who create beauty through sheer will and their own bare hands. But who decides what is beautiful? And what are the concealed mechanisms of power that lie within the triangular relationship of artist, object and viewer?
Gob Squad Arts Collective have travelled the world for the past 25 years and now find themselves well and truly middle-aged, with no desire to exit the stage just yet. In Creation (Pictures for Dorian), they are joined onstage by a diverse group of local performers a generation younger and a generation older than themselves. Their aim? To peep behind the vanity-mirror and search for answers to questions of beauty, morality, ageing and power, and to playfully ask why they so crave the eye of the beholder.
The project is inspired by Oscar Wilde’s character, Dorian Gray, who meddles in the domain of the gods with the aid of a magical painting. He suspends the process of ageing and remains young and beautiful forever, at a terrible cost to his soul. There’s probably a little bit of Dorian in all of us. What happens when he is denied the limelight forever?
Concept and Direction: Gob Squad
Performance: Johanna Freiburg, Sean Patten, Sharon Smith, Berit Stumpf, Sarah Thom, Bastian Trost, Simon Will
Performed by three of Gob Squad joined by six of the local guests:
Berlin guests: Christopher Adams-Cohen, Rojin Anousha, Beatrice Cordua, Parisa Madani, Jasper Middendorf, Dietrich Novak, Naomi Odhiambo, Dieter Rita Scholl, Susanne Scholl, Leonie Schramm, Noah Tinwa
Vilnius guests: Eimantas Antulis, Jurgita Maskoliūnaitė, Morta Narkauskaitė, Ramutis Ramutis, Vladimir Serov, Vida Vaičiulytė – Valuckienė
Bern guests: Glynis Ackermann, Neil Höhener, Jeanette König, Marco Morelli, Anina Steiner, Léo Thomas
Munich guests: Artemis Sacantanis, Frank Frey, Ivy Lißack, Lili Biedermann, Paul Hofman-Wellenhof, Terry
Los Angeles guests: Amentha Dymally, Mallory Fabian, Dan Guerrero, Natasha Liu, Tina Preston, Nic Prior
Rotterdam guests: Kiki Ernst, Yverna Herz, Gilles van Hecke, Kristianus van der Waag, Amy Gale, Simon Versnel
Wiesbaden guests: Cherry, Hiltrud Hauschke, Anoushe Mir, Ronny Rolls, David Rothe, Dieter Schaad
Leipzig guests: Beatrice Cordua, Amy DeVil, Jacki Fahrenwald, Hansi Noack, Helga Sieler, Alejandro Vallejo
London guests: Claudia Boulton, Christina Brown, Lieve Carchon, Stuart Feather, Amelie Roch, Michael Narouei
Brighton guests: Kate Dyson, Samuel Longville, Nicholas Minns, Holly Nomafo, Dorothy Max Prior, CHUB RUB
Sound Design: Sebastian Bark, Jeff McGrory (Torsten Schwarzbach)
Video Design: Miles Chalcraft (Noam Gorbat)
Costume Design: Ingken Benesch
Set Realisation: Lena Mody
Lighting Design and Technical Management: Chris Umney, Max Wegner
Dramaturgy and Production Management: Christina Runge
Artistic Support: Mat Hand, Amina Nouns
Costume Assistant: Claudia Gali
Set Realisation Assistant: Julia Buntzel
Production Assistant: Ben Mohai
Directing Interns: Patty Kim, Amina Nouns
First performance: May 2nd 2018 at HAU Hebbel am Ufer Berlin, Germany.
Creation (Pictures for Dorian) is a production by Gob Squad and HAU Hebbel am Ufer Berlin. Developed with support from Center Theatre Group, Los Angeles, CA. In co-production with Münchner Kammerspiele, Schauspiel Leipzig, Wiesbaden Biennale, Schlachthaus Theater Bern. A LIFT, Brighton Festival and Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts commission. An Imagine 2020 (2.0) project, supported by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union. Supported using public funding by Arts Council of England.
Creation (Pictures for Dorian) is funded by the state of Berlin, Chancellery of the Berlin Senate for Culture and Europe.
Gob Squad is regularly funded by the state of Berlin (2015 – 2019), Chancellery of the Berlin Senate for Culture and Europe.
