Bühnenstück | 2005
Bühnenstück literally translated means 'piece for stage'. It is one of a trio of pieces that 'recycles' the ritual of theater going: After Cobaye vs Cobaye (2003), C+H choose to reevaluate their approach to making performances. Dividing the theatrical event into a before, during and after, they decided to treat the respective spaces - theater lobby, stage and bar, with equal importance. This division and subsequent research led to the pieces Prelude ‘A’ (2004), Bühnenstück (2005) and Konspiration (2006).
Bühnenstück places its audience on stage in a confined room made of black theater curtains. This black-box room becomes a shared space where spectators, performers and events coincide.
The three actors spend the duration of the performance carrying objects in and out of the space and modifying their disposition in order to create a series of concrete situations for the public standing inside the curtained room:
Operated by its actors, Bühnenstück strives to successively organize for the audience - an entrance, a briefing, a construction site, a bus, a game, some cleaning, a concert, a set-change, a cinema, an interlude, a bar, a waiting room, a new start, a cockpit, a factory, an elevator, a museum, a lecture, and a slide-show.
In Bühnenstück, anything and everything entering the room becomes part of the piece.
Bühnenstück premiered in The Plateaux Festival At the Mousonturn (Frankfurt) in 2005 and will be performed again in November 2008 during the Playground festival at the Stuk (Leuven).
Tour
12-11-2006 until 14/11/2005, Mousonturm / Frankfurt PLATEAUX FESTIVAL (premiere)14-12-2006 and 15/12/2005, Netwerk / Aalst
27-11-2007 until 02/12/2007, GRÜ / Geneva
05-11-2008 until 07/11/2008, STUK / Leuven PLAYGROUND FESTIVAL
09-09-2009 until 11/09/2009, FRASCATI / Amsterdam I, THE SPECTATOR
performance :
C&H
concept :
Heike Langsdorf, Christophe Meierhans, Christoph Ragg
support :
WP Zimmer, Nadine
understudy :
Lilja Hermannsdòttir
co-production :
Plateaux Mousonturm, Netwerk / center for contemporary art, frogs OS, Kunst/Werk
dramaturgical advice :
Marc Vanrunxt
voice training :
David Helbich
thanks to :
Erika Langsdorf, Karlheinz Langsdorf, Kirsten Langsdorf