Residencies

• 11.01 > 07.02.2021

The ulti­ma­te les­son of Darwinism is that natu­re tin­kers and impro­vi­ses. There is no Evolution: cata­strop­hes and bro­ken equi­li­bri­ums are part of natu­ral his­to­ry; at count­less moments in the past, life could have taken a com­ple­te­ly dif­fe­rent direc­ti­on. (Slavoj Žižek)

For the per­for­man­ce MANNAHATTA, the­a­ter maker Renée Goethijn — together with sce­no­grap­her Stefan Jakiela — trans­forms the sta­ge into a magi­cal-rea­lis­tic and arti­fi­ci­al natu­ral sce­ne. Three figu­res, for whom the natu­ral world is only a vague memo­ry, are left to their own devi­ces. But how do they react when that bizar­re lands­ca­pe begins an absurd rebel­li­on? How do they deal with the fee­ling of dis­pla­ce­ment and alie­na­ti­on when their fami­liar envi­ron­ment sud­den­ly acts unpre­dic­ta­bly?

MANNAHATTA is a per­for­man­ce that balan­ces bet­ween the­a­ter, per­for­man­ce, and visu­al art, in which Renée Goethijn explo­res the con­nec­ti­ons bet­ween cli­ma­te chan­ge, tech­no­lo­gi­cal pro­gress, and tou­rism. She pla­ces the actors in a world that is simul­ta­neous­ly nos­tal­gic, futu­ris­tic, and uto­pi­an, whe­re the boun­da­ries bet­ween natu­re and tech­no­lo­gy are blur­red. In this way, MANNAHATTA shows a lands­ca­pe that dan­ces on the ruins of the world as we know it and chal­len­ges our cer­tain­ties and per­cep­ti­ons. A lands­ca­pe in which humans strug­gle with the loss of their natu­ral envi­ron­ment in light of their own fini­te life­span. A lands­ca­pe that may ulti­ma­te­ly swal­low humans whole.