With Body of Knowledge – At Home the theater comes into your home: Connected with spectators and teenagers from Australia, a performance about the big and small questions of life and how the future unfolds. How much closeness is possible between people who live faraway from each other, who do not know each other, who are separated by continents, cultures and generations? What happens when adults in Vienna talk over the phone to teenagers in Australia about vital and intimate topics such as sexuality, shame, sorrow, age, death and the future of the planet? And how does theatre work in the absence of physical presence?
The performance, Body of Knowledge, in which spectators inside the theatre room were connected via telephones with teenagers from all over the world and in the process built a stage set themselves, toured successfully on stages in Australia and Europe in 2019. Now, Australian artist Samara Hersch has created a version of her work in which viewers can connect with the young international cast from the comfort of their own homes: The spectators are digitally connected with each other via their own laptops.
INFO: The performance takes place online – you can take part from the comfort of your home. As soon as you have purchased a ticket, you will receive further information from us to the e-mail address provided at the time of the ticket purchase. In our webshop we ask you to give us a postal address. Please enter correct data here, so that we can send you a package, which you should please unpack only in the course of the event.
IMPORTANT: You will need a computer with a stable internet connection and a cell phone with the WhatsApp messenger installed
Samara Hersch is a theatre maker, director and teaching artist whose practice explores the intersection of contemporary performance and community engagement.She recently completed her Masters at Das Theatre in Amsterdam. She is interested in cross-generational discourses and non-hierarchical forms of knowledge exchange. Her works toured internationally among others at Auawirleben Festival Bern and Münchner Kammerspiele and have received several awards: for example the Jury Prize and the audience award at the Züricher Theaterspektakel. Body of Knowledge was realized in the framework oft he European Network; Be SpectACTive!.
"Body of Knowledge offers our anonymised voices as a non-hierarchical way of relating to people of a different experience to our own, and encourages us to be changed by these encounters. This way of communicating allows us to realise how common our experiences can be. One vivacious facilitator towards the end of the performance put it best when he exclaimed ‘adults are just grown-up teenagers’." (Marcus Whale, Running Dog)
Lead Artist Samara Hersch Originated with and performed by a team of Australian teenagers Creative Technologist Fred Rodrigues with Nathan Fain and Jonathan Mikkelsen Artistic Associate Cassandra Fumi Dramaturg Maria Rößler Production Support Bec Reid Photography Pier Carthew
The „At Home“ was co-commissioned by Zürcher Theater Spektakel and The International Summer Festival Hamburg (Kampnagel) and was presented at both festivals in August 2020.
The original version of Body of Knowledge was realized in the framework of Be SpectACTive!.
Be SpectACTive! - brut Wien (AT), CapoTrave/Kilowatt (IT), Artemrede (PT), Bakelit Multi Art Center (HU), BUDA Kortrijk (BE), Cafè de las Artes Teatro (ES), Domino (HR), Divadelná Nitra (SK), Dublin theatre festival (IE), Göteborgs stadss kulturförvaltning/ Stora teatern (SE), Institution Student Cultural Centre (RS), Occitanie en scène languedoc-roussillon (FR), Plesni teater (SI), Tanec praha (CZ), Teatrul national Radu Stanca (RO).
Co-commissioned by SICK! Festival in Manchester, Liveworks Festival of Experimental Art, Carriageworks in Sydney. An early version of this work was developed at DAS Theatre in Amsterdam.
INFO: The performance takes place online – you can take part from the comfort of your home. As soon as you have purchased a ticket, you will receive further information from us to the e-mail address provided at the time of the ticket purchase. In our webshop we ask you to give us a postal address. Please enter correct data here, so that we can send you a package, which you should please unpack only in the course of the event.
IMPORTANT: You will need a computer with a stable internet connection and a cell phone with the WhatsApp messenger installed
Online event via zoom and mobile phone