The German-Swiss collective RAUM+ZEIT presents the play BERLAU :: KÖNIGREICH DER GEISTER at the Berliner Ensemble for the whole of May combining virtual reality and live performance.
Image above: Berlau :: Königreich der Geister, Photo: Moritz Haase
On January 15th 1974, a hospital bed in East Berlin’s Charité is on fire. The patient who dies in the fire caused by a cigarette is an old Danish communist: Ruth Berlau. She had been Bertolt Brecht’s lover since his Danish exile. In the USA she teaches herself photography. At the age of 13 she becomes pregnant. She has an abortion. She directs Brecht in Leipzig. At 23, she goes to Paris and becomes known for her reportages. The texts – freely invented. She stages Brecht in Rotterdam. Marries a young Danish doctor. In Los Angeles she has and loses a son by Brecht. She founds a theatre when she is 24. Photographs Brecht’s works. Invents the model books. Works with Brecht on the “Caucasian Chalk Circle”. She does not submit to Brecht’s laws. She is ordered to return to Denmark. Her hunger for life is insatiable. Brecht dies. Berlau stays.
BERLAU :: KÖNIGREICH DER GEISTER combines the digital medium of virtual reality with the live play of three protagonists. Equipped with VR glasses, you enter the scenic installation alone and get very close to Ruth Berlau and Brecht, both live and virtually.
RAUM+ZEIT is a German-Swiss collective whose hybrid-immersive installations are characterised by the play with the logic of a consistent space-time continuum and the inner world of perception. The VR installation “ANTIGONE :: COMEBACK. A Rehearsal with Weigel and Brecht” by RAUM+ZEIT was invited to the Swiss Theatertreffen 2019. The collective is composed of the artists Alexandra Althoff, Male Günther, Lothar Kittstein and Bernhard Mikeska.
Space: Steffi Wurster
Costumes: Pauline Hüners
Sound design: Knut Jensen
Dramaturgy: Male Günther
Director: Bernhard Mikeska
Text: Lothar Kittstein
WHEN?
Thu, 05.05., Fri, 06.05., Sat, 07.05., Mon, 09.05., Tue, 10.05., Fri, 13.05., Sun, 15.05., Mon, 16.05., Tue, 17.05., Wed, 18.05., Fri, 20.05., Mon, 23.05., Thu, 26.05., Fri, 27.05., Sun, 29.05., Tue, 31.05.2022.
At 5:36 pm
WHERE?
Berliner Ensemble
Neues Haus
Bertolt-Brecht-Platz 1
10117 Berlin-Mitte
+49 30 284 08 155
www.berliner-ensemble.de
