Konferenz der wesentlichen Dinge
- Pulk Fiktion
What would happen if you could chose your own family? What kind of freedom would it create? Who would take care of whom?
"Konferenz der wesentlichen Dinge" (Conference of Essential Matters) from the German group Pulk Fiktion, is an interactive performance for an intergenerational audience. A group of 20 participants, consisting of children, teenagers, and adults, gathers around a table and begins to create their own rules for the encounter. Guided by audio instructions and two performers, participants discuss, vote, observe, test, and experience alternative concepts of family. Their roles constantly shift as they explore questions of kinship, responsibility and agency. "Konferenz der wesentlichen Dinge" is an experiment in democracy where everyone is equal regardless of their age.
Performed in English.
The participation is made possible with support from The Goethe Institute.
From 12 years
The name of this performance disarms the term "conference" and takes the audience down a challenging and humorous path. In a performative situation that shifts between the theatrical and the playful, the audience create the conditions for a family constellation. The children's and adolescents' voices are given a different weight and immediately set the agenda for what a family is. Difficult situations put the agreement within the "family" at risk and generate a new form of interaction between the audience and the performers.
Group:
Pulk FiktionCast:
With: Norman Grotegut and Manuela Neudegger
Direction: Hannah Biedermann and Eva von Schweinitz
Live-Technicians: Matthias Meyer and Nicolas Schneider
Assistance und Voice: Milena Wichert
Set: One Take Toni
Production Management: Zwei Eulen – Büro für Kulturkonzepte
Additional contributions: Karoline Kähler, Sebastian Schlemminger
Photo: Julius Matuschik
A production by pulk fiktion, in co-production with LOT-Theater Braunschweig, FFT Düsseldorf, and COMEDIA Theater Köln.
Made possible through flausen - young artists in residence, a fellowship prototype project by theater wrede+ Oldenburg.
Funded by Niedersächsisches Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kultur, Stiftung Niedersachsen, Kulturamt der Stadt Köln, and Fonds Darstellende Künste e.V.