A Live Film
This is the front door to where I live, isn’t it? And this is my key? Is anybody home? OK, I’m going in… Is this my own room here? And this big double bed, it’s mine, right? All just for me! I‘m so exhausted. I’m going to lie down now. But first of all, tell me: What gets me out of bed in the morning? Am I happy here?
Gob Squad have made an interactive live film in which empathy and the idea of sharing the experience of others are taken to the extreme. Each night the performers swap places with a new local guest who is invited to watch a film, set in their own private apartment. While the film unfolds live in the theatre before their very eyes, boundaries of privacy and property are constantly being negotiated, strangers’ beds are slept in and bodies are taken over. Where do you start, and where do I end? Is this a nightmare or a dream to come true?
Meanwhile on the streets, we see another body on a mysterious fairytale-like quest. What is home outside of four walls? Where do we find the opening in the membrane of the private, to make connections rather than draw divisions? Where can we come together? In the theatre? In a stranger’s house? In my body? Our minds? On the streets? Is anybody home?
Concept and Direction: Gob Squad
Development and performance (in changing cast): Mira Partecke, Sean Patten, Sharon Smith, Berit Stumpf, Sarah Thom, Bastian Trost, Simon Will
Guests Berlin (for one night only one of the following): Vandross Diogo Valeria Alage, Colette Callec, Asena Ersöz, Josefin Fischer, Arda Görkem, Aglaia Gronas, Rojin Haddad, Milan Herms, Nayana Heuer, Janoushka Kamin, Zarah Kofler, Lilith Krause, Fabio Mazzocchi, Anthony Römer, Salma Salaheldin, Jana Josina Saretzki, Mike Schäfer, Akira Schroth, Charly Schwerdtfeger, David Senger, Yu Sun, Sonja Weißer
Guests Aarhus: Lisa Christiane Lertoft, Maha Farid Majid, Thomas Steenfeldt Nielsen
Sound Design: Catalina Fernandez, Isabel Gonzalez Toro, Nomi Jacobi
Video Design: Miles Chalcraft
Lighting Design: Frank Novak
Set Design: Nina von Mechow, Gob Squad
Costume Design: Sarah Thom, Ingken Benesch, Frank Salewski
Dramaturgy: Johanna Höhmann, Christina Runge
Production Management: Christina Runge
Production Assistant: Anna Zrenner, Lara Weidemann
Dramaturgy Assistant: Leonie Jenning
Set Design Assistant: Konrad Walkow
Intern: Zhuoer Chen
Thank you to Vanessa Unzalu Troya, Daniel Hromyko, Fernanda Farah, Oska Melina Borcherding, Mariana Senne and all mums and flatmates
World premiere: 15th December 2022, Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz
“Is Anybody Home?” is a production of Gob Squad and Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz
Supported by Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media as part of NEUSTART KULTUR.
Gob Squad is regularly funded within the Konzeptförderung programme 2024 – 2027 by the Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalt Berlin.