Grenzenlos Kultur vol. 20 - Theatre Festival

Zurich's Theater HORA, a regular guest at Grenzenlos Kultur and by now world-famous, turns 25. What better reason to celebrate itself by putting on a grand stage show, homage to the still most non-conformist of all pop stars: Bob Dylan. Inspired by his crashes and flights of fancy, quirkiness and unpredictability, identity changes, boundary crossings and his lifelong struggle against fulfilling expectations and for the freedom of obstinacy, HORA reflect their own role in a society that is increasingly fixated on norms and boundaries.

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Direction Michael Elber Musical direction Roland Strobel With the HORA Ensemble Noha Badir, Remo Beuggert, Gianni Blumer, Matthias Brücker, Cécile Creuzburg, Caitlin Friedly, Robin Gilly, Simone Gisler, Nikolai Gralak, Matthias Grandjean, Julia Häusermann, Sara Hess, Lucas Maurer, Serafin Michel, Nicole Neuenschwander, Tiziana Pagliaro, Fredi Senn, Simon Stuber, Fabienne Villiger The HORA'BAND Enrico Rizzi, Lukas Selinger, Roland Strobel, Dr. Vree, Nadja Zela, Denise Wick Ross and Special Guests Artistic collaboration Nele Jahnke, Malí Lazell, Amadea Schütz Scenography Copi Remund Videos Malí Lazell Design Barbara Rusterholz Costumes Caroline Benz, Judith Steinmann Dramaturgical advice Marcel Bugiel Technics Verena Kälin, Simone Kaufmann Production direction Adrian T. Mai With the support of Amt für Kultur -  Kanton Bern, Alexis Victor Thalberg-Stiftung, Ernst Göhner Stiftung, Gemeinde Köniz – Fachstelle Kultur, Gemeinnützige Stiftung Symphasis, G+B Schwyzer-Stiftung, G+J Bloch-Stiftung, Grütli Stiftung Zürich, Hans Konrad Rahn-Stiftung, Fachstelle Kultur Kanton Zürich, Kultur Stadt Bern, Landis & Gyr Stiftung, MIGROS-Kulturprozent, RSB Stiftung, Stadt Zürich Kultur, Werner H. Spross-Stiftung, Vontobel Stiftung

The Rolling Thunder Revue was the concert tour of a group of musicians, created and led by Bob Dylan. This was in autumn of 1975 and spring of 1976. Just as then, various artists came together for Grenzenlos Kultur to present their musical approaches to the phenomenon that is Bob Dylan.

In the center of the evening will be the seven members of Dylan's Dream, a music collective which has dedicated itself to Dylan's work and was awarded the title of best German tribute band by the German Rock and Pop Association in 2015. Two other guests will add their perspectives to the picture: Santino de Bartolo, cantiautore from Calabria, sings the Dylan of the Seventies in Italian while Jürgen Hardeck, former frontman of the German rock band Ignotum, will present their cover versions. Entirely different sides of Bob Dylan, but they will make the Joker dance!

Has your chimney sweep ever turned out to be an opera singer? Or does your florist suddenly start singing at the top of her lungs? No? This is going to change: Les Grooms show with great wit and charm that there is an artist slumbering in every soul. Disguised as an ordinary brass orchestra, they wander through the alleys until – out of the blue– they call for a musical street battle. Postmen, waiters and bank employees become street stars, passers-by sing together in a choir, old ladies throw away their walking aides and start dancing. Before you know it, the whole neighbourhood has become part of a small opera!

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With Diego Asensio, Jacques Auffray, Mathilde Clavier, Axelle Ciofolo de Peretti, Elisabeth Herault, Christophe Rappoport, Antoine Rosset, Serge Serafini, Bruno Travert Arrangements Antoine Rosset, Serge Serafini Production Théâtre de l'Unité With the support of the festival “Chalon dans la rue”, the performances in Mainz are supported by SPEDIDAM - les droits des artistes-interprètes

17 Hippies – their contribution to Andreas Dresen's film "Halbe Treppe" in 2001 made them famous over night also outside of Berlin! It all started with the idea of finding such small common denominator for music that as many musicians as possible could play together. 22 years after the band was founded, their repertoire comprises far more than the sum of all identifiable components, their sound, which is inspired by world music and rock/pop/jazz, is unmistakable. Curtain up for a simply captivating live concert!

Percujam is a project in which musicians with and without autism perform on stage together. “C'est lesquels les autistes?” – who are the ones with autism here? – they asked provocatively on their first album. Many years and some albums later, this question is still there and serves as an invitation for the audience to come out of one’s shell and get infected by this extremely danceable, wonderful French mixture of reggae and hip hop, pop, chanson and ska, Latin American and African rhythms!

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Jess Thom, who has been stirring up the British performance scene for some time with her fictional character Touretteshero, has Tourette's syndrome. This neurological disease forces people to make movements and noises over which they have no control - so-called ticks. After her award-winning production „Backstage in Biscuit Land“, Jess Thom now takes on Samuel Beckett's „Not I“. A woman's monologue reveals moments of an existence that can only be seen in the torn images of memory, in the thrusts of a broken language. One of the most innovative designs in the history of theatre, building a visionary bridge to performance art.

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Performed by Jess Thom Directed by Matthew Pountney Designed by Ben Pacey German Sign Language by Julia Cramer

The performances take place in a relaxed atmosphere from which everyone benefits. People with tics, involuntary expressions or movements are particularly welcome.

Pre-Show Information Sheet (PDF)

Probably the London shoemaker Ab Solomons himself did not suspect what he instigated when he scribbled a small picture on his wage-packet in 1926: a loving nod to his wife Celie. This quickly became a tradition that produced increasingly complex images between quick sketches and precise caricatures. Every week a new work was created that reflected on their life together, throughout their entire marriage. With wit, warmth and surprising honesty these pictures depict a family life with all its ups and downs. In his solo show "Wot! No Fish!" gifted performer Danny Braverman tells the moving story of his great uncle Ab and his art. Of war and deprivation, social advancement and, in our eyes, the intolerable situation in which people with disabilities had to live in the post-war period. Thus an everyday working life suddenly becomes exemplary - and a moving plea for love.

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From and with Danny Braverman Artistic collaboration, original direction Nick Philippou Technical direction Simon Jackson-Lyall Technical direction Mainz Jonathan Grilli International production management Charlene Lim

£¥€$ can be read as “lies”, but also as “eyes” or as the symbols for pound, yen, euro and dollar. Anyway, this show is about money. The Belgian group Ontroerend Goed invites you to transform yourself into one of the super-rich and be the one percent that pulls the strings, the people we never see. For one evening you can take your place in the centre of the economic system and determine its course. You would certainly do everything differently, everything better, fairer, more responsibly - right? After Ontroerend Goed tested knowledge about oneself in their “Personal Trilogy” and examined the voting behaviour of the participants in “Fight Night”, the group now targets what we really appreciate: money.

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Director Alexander Devriendt With Britt Bakker, Hannah Boer, Karolien De Bleser, Charlotte De Bruyne, Aaron J. Gordon, Yuri Heegstra, Robin Keyaert, Aurélie Lannoy, Yuri Smet, Angelo Tijssens, Eleonore Van Godtsenhoven, Sjef Van Schie, Bastiaan Vandendriessche, Samir Veen, Max Wind Text Joeri Smet Technical staff Babette Poncelet, Iben Stalpaert, Joyce Rijpert (Intern) Costumes Astrid Peeters Music Johannes Genard Stage Design vormen & Nick Mattan Dramaturgy Koba Ryckewaert, Zach Hatch, Julie Behaegel (Intern) Production Assistant Charlotte Nyota Bischop (Intern) Producer David Bauwens Tour planning Karen Van Ginderachter Commercial Director Wim Smet Coproduction Vooruit Artscentrum, Ghent (BE) Theatre Royal, Plymouth (UK) Richard Jordan Productions (UK) Thanks to Toneelacademie Maastricht (NL), Bram Billiet, Jeffrey Caen, Maria Dafneros, Thomas Dhanens, Khalid Koujili, Bo Marlijnen, Miriam Matthys, Tamara Searle, Louiza Vande Woestyne, Ruud Vander heyden With the support of de Vlaamse Gemeenschap, Provincie Oost-Vlaanderen and Stad Gent

The London police call him an extremist, the National Health Service describes him as “highly mentally confused” and diagnoses a “borderline personality disorder”. He was branded by the court as “a real and present danger”. He himself prefers the term “mental”. Mental is an autobiographical one-man performance that takes place in a bedroom for an intimate audience. For more than ten years, the art activist the vacuum cleaner has lived as an outlaw and a patient. With the help of the Data Protection Act, he has gained access to all data collected about him by the British Government. Now he reports on his illness, suicide attempts, stigmatisation, political actions and state surveillance on the basis of psychiatric records and police data.

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By and with the vacuum cleaner Directing, dramaturgy Kim Noble Production Hannah Hull Design Sophie Nathan Developed with Tania El Khoury With the support of Arts Council England, Artsadmin, In Between Time

Since Shakespeare's drama of the same name, the English king Richard III has been synonymous with criminals, villains, dictators of all kinds, in short: personified evil. But is he really? Is it really him? And what if he is a “she”? What happens when the “ghastly deformed, limping, hunchbacked cripple” is embodied by an actress who is funny, feminine, feminist and has the same form of scoliosis? How do the story, the body and the character change when they are explored by a handicapped actress with a very funny timing? Can this be compared to other legendary performances of Richard, such as those of Laurence Olivier, Ian McKellan, Al Pacino, Kevin Spacey?

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With Sara Beer Written by Kaite O'Reilly, Philipp Zarilli Director, producer Phillip Zarrilli Dramaturgy Kaite O'Reilly Video, photo Paul Whittaker Set design, costumes Deryn Tudor Lighting Joe Fletcher Sound Samuel Jones Stage Katie Bingham Thanks to ACW, Chapter Arts Centre, Disability Arts Cymru, J.P. Plant Hire, Marigolds Costume (Cardiff), Bosworth Battleground Heritage Centre, Bangor Re-enactment Society

Following the performance of richard iii redux, Kaite O'Reilly will present her book "The 'd' Monologues - collected solos for D/deaf and disabled performers", published in September 2018 by Oberon Books. It features monologues in various styles and forms - including the performance text of richard iii redux (co-written with Phillip Zarrilli), In Water I'm Weightless and And Suddenly I Disappear  - inspired by more than 100 interviews and conversations with D/deaf and disabled people all over the world. In the foyer of the Kleines Haus Kaite O'Reilly will speak about the ten year process of this collection and the necessity of diversity on our stages.

"..a masterpiece of poetic and dramatic transformation.."
(John E McGrath, artistic director Manchester International Festival)

This novel is an absolute classic. In "Around the World in 80 Days" Jules Verne described in 1873 what had become possible due to industrialisation, because of railways and steamboats: namely, to circumnavigate an increasingly shrinking world faster than ever before. The fact that the purpose of the round trip via Bombay, San Francisco and Bordeaux was simply to save the status of Phileas Fogg in his London club shows the colonial abysses of Western civilization. In the end however, humanity – and love - triumphs.

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Director, Concept, Design Eike Hannemann With Yana Robin la Baum, Samuel Koch, Robert Lang, Hubert Schlemmer Dramaturgy Oliver Brunner Costumes Hanna Santelmann Lighting Carolin Seel Sound Nadja Klinge

There are few artists who can do everything: invent stories, write plays, direct and also appear on stage. Dennis Seidel of the Hamburg theatre company "Meine Damen und Herren" is one of them. After his one-woman show "Ordinary Girl", a heartfelt comic melodrama with a touch of David Lynch, he has come up with his first work for multiple actors: Liv Split is a reporter and reports live from the assassination on November 22nd, 1963. "The Day Kennedy Was Murdered and Mimmi Kennedy Became President" tells the story of the murder of the legendary US president and of finding the real culprit. At the same time, two sisters search for each other and are reunited.

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Director Dennis Seidel With Noa Michalski, Celina Scharff, Michael Schumacher, Dennis Seidel, Lina Strohtmann and two Barbie dolls Music Kevin Hamann, Dennis Seidel Text Assistant Daniela Chmelik Costumes Gloria Brillowska Video 17motion Lighting Carl Hoffmann Dramaturgy Anja Redecker Assistant Director, Production Manager Christoph Grothaus Production barner 16 in cooperation with the Festival NO LIMITS Berlin 2017

Consciously or unconsciously we touch ourselves and others every day, are touched and allow being touch. Let’s assume that we had the opportunity to rediscover ourselves with the sense with which we experience ourselves most strongly - what landscapes do we recognize when we explore our protective shield with our hands? What power and information is contained in touch? What does the way we touch say about ourselves? In a danced trio formed by two female and one male dancer tanzbar_bremen explores what touch and closeness triggers in us humans. www.tanzbarbremen.com

Dance, choreography, development Neele Buchholz, Corinna Mindt, Oskar Spatz Lighting Timo Reichenberger Dramaturgy Günther Grollitsch, Lars Mindt Production tanzbar_bremen/steptext dance project, realized in the context of the pilot project KompeTanz in cooperation with the festival NO LIMITS Berlin 2017.

The big bear is looking helplessly at a round, white egg that must have been lost by the fox. Suddenly the shell breaks open: "Mama!" screams the little goose that slips out of the egg and no longer leaves the bear's side. As goose and bear slowly grow closer to each other they are observed by Mr and Mrs Fox, their dear neighbours. Interwoven with stories from the lives of the Damen und Herren and the Hajusom performers, "Gans anders" develops a highly personal, insightful dynamic and shows how complex topics can be playfully questioned - and that there is often more than just one truth.

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Director Christoph Grothaus, Marc-André Klotz, Martina Vermaaten With Hamed Ahmadi, Kevin Hamann, Friederike Jaglitz, Parija Masoumi, Thomas Möller, Dennis Roberts, Sarah Owusu, Tom Reinecke Music Stella Edler, Kevin Hamann, Parija Masoumi Stage, Costumes Nadira Nasser Dramaturgy Students of the Bugenhagen School Groß Flottbek and the all-day primary school Sternschanze Puppets, puppet coaching Nicola Reinmöller Lighting Marek Lamprecht Production management Lis Marie Diehl Assistance Elisa Anders, Birgit Arndorfer, Jessica Müller, Johanna Quack, Lisa Radziejewski, Paula Karolina Stolze Production barner 16

"Who is actually doing the cleaning in this country?" ask the two Greek directors Anestis Azas and Prodromos Tsinikoris. Their answer: foreigners, refugees, migrant women. They clean the homes of the better-off, take care of the household, feed and care for the elderly, clean houses, clothes and asses, in short: clean up the dirt that others leave behind. Mabel, Rositsa, Fredalyn, Drita and Valentina are five women of different ages who have come to Athens as immigrants and who try their luck as cleaning women. With wit and chutzpah, Clean City allows these representatives of today's working class to speak confidently and straightforwardly of exploitation and prejudice, of lawlessness and powerlessness, but also of pride and dignity.

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Director, research, text Anestis Azas, Prodromos Tsinikoris With Mabel Matchidiso Mosana, Rositsa Pandalieva, Fredalyn Resurreccion, Drita Shehi, Valentina Ursache Music Panagiotis Manouilidis Set design, Costumes Eleni Stroulia, Zaira Falirea (assistant) Make-up Eveline Boeckx Video Nelly Kambouri, Nikos Pastras Lighting Eliza Alexandropoulou Dramaturgy Margarita Tsomou Assistant Director Ioanna Valsamidou, Liana Taousiani Production Manager Vasilis Chrysanthopoulos Surtitling Ines Kaffee (translation), Prodromos Tsinikoris (operator) Co-production Onassis Cultural Centre Athens, Goethe-Institut (Europoly project) in collaboration with the Munich Kammerspiele, Sirenos - Vilnius International Theatre Festival, Teatro Maria Matos Lisbon, Tiger Dublin Fringe

 

With the Zentralcafé, a small container landscape on Tritonplatz, “Grenzenlos Kultur” now also has a convivial meeting place after all performances, a party venue for the Democratic Disco on Friday, Sept 14 from 22.00 h and also an additional festival stage. As such, it will be worthily inaugurated by dear friends of the festival - by the Berlin foam puppet heroes Das Helmi, supported by additional actors and musicians. For the opening on Sunday, they adapted four episodes of the American cult series “Game of Thrones” to surprising effect: Part 1 - Walk of Shame, Part 2 - Mother of Dragons, Part 3 - The Imp, Part 4 - Winter is coming. On the following days the throne battle between Westeros and Essos will develop in all its horrors in short episodes at 21.30 h! Brace yourselves: These episodes have the force of Greek tragedies and the humour of Monty Python.

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By and with Solene Garnier, Lisa Heinrici, Christopher Heisler, Felix Loycke, Florian Loycke, Brian Morrow, Emir Tebatebai Technical Aspects Burkart Ellinghaus Artistic Collaboration Tina Pfurr, Dasniya Sommer, Kara Schröder Dramaturgical Collaboration Nada Mahamid Dance Coaching Ayam Costumes Mary B. Kay Thanks to Ballhaus Ost Berlin & ehrliche arbeit - freies Kulturbüro A production of Das Helmi in cooperation with Festival Grenzenlos Kultur Supported by Berliner Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa (Berlin Senate, Department of Culture and Europe)