A coproduction with Theater Rampe and Theater Lübeck
What if a virus were not just a serious attack to an organism? If it did not lead society into a collapse, but out of it? What if this friendly visitor brought reanimation as a present and his infection was a long-awaited touch? If the virus tasted sweet? The inhabitants of ›House of Antibodies‹ reinterpret the pandemic and mutate, thanks to the virus, into resistant antibodies. They are relieved when it breaks down disease-causing standards and habits. This virus brings neither illness nor death to the organism, but – quite the contrary – healing. This pandemic imposes a quarantine over society, overcomes previous periods of standstill and isolation, and marks the beginning of a brave new world.
A double feature of two films tells of the virus breaking into all rooms and organs of the ›House of Antibodies‹.
In ›Cocooning / kəˈkuːnɪŋ /‹ (dance film) the virus brings its sweet gift to the cellar, where a kidney is doing its lonely hard work until then. In the bathroom a lung is barely able to breathe and in the living-room a uterus is always ready to receive. The heart beats everywhere and swells with the rhythm of a resuscitation. From room to room and from organ to organ, the virus pushes open doors and also the circulation.
In ›Pandemic – A Revenant‹ (theatre film) the virus leads a female doctor and patients through the extensive labyrinth of the stage rooms of the ›House of Antibodies‹. In common quarantine they indulge in all the phases of the examination, diagnosis, education, treatment and corresponding interactions. From mutual infection, immunisation, endangerment and healing the model acrrues a hardheaded, resistant and proud community.
The ›House of Antibodies‹ initially was planned as a live performance on five simultaneous stages for a a circulating audience. Due to the intrusion of a virus and the outbreak of a pandemic, this concept could not be implemented. Rather, it was imperative for everyone to stay at home and so the participants communicated online. Under influence of the applicable hygiene standards, dancers*, actors* and musicians* rehearsed in their apartments in Stuttgart, Antwerp, Richmond, Marseille, Berlin, Weinstadt, Munich and Hamburg as well as in the Theater Rampe. With their mobile phones, partly with the support of their respective domestic communities, they shot many scenes themselves. This is how the virtual ›House of Antibodies‹ came into being.
Premiere: 6. June 2020// 8:00 p.m.
Guest performances Cocooning /kəˈkuːnɪŋ/:
12. March 2021 // 8:00 p.m. // The soundtrack of the House of Antibodies // Live at Radio Rampe
19.-21. February 2021 // HochX, München
15.-20. March 2021 // EinTanzHaus, Mannheim
25.-28. March 2021 // Lichthof Theater, Hamburg
25.-30. April 2022 // 6 tage frei, Stuttgart
Team // Pandemic – a revenant
A theater film by Marie Bues, Niko Eleftheriadis, Marie Ulbricht, Annatina Huwiler and Luise Heiderhoff
Text: Natascha Gangl
Director: Marie Bues
Camera and editing: Niko Eleftheriadis
Music: Siri Thiermann
Film assistance: Christopher Bühler
Assistant director: Luise Heiderhoff
Set & costume design: Annatina Huwiler
Dramaturgy: Martina Grohmann
With Niko Eleftheriadis and Marie Ulbricht
With special thanks to Matthias Kaschig, Matthias Zaijgier, and the Kaschig and Ulbricht families.
Team // Cocooning / kə’ku:nɪŋ /
A film by backsteinhaus produktion
Team: Nicki Liszta, Heiko Giering, Isabelle von Gatterburg, Tobias Tönjes, Christopher Bühler, Annatina Huwiler, Chloé Beillevaire, Steven Chotard, David Ledger, Andreia Rodrigues, Ferdinand Roscher, Monika Roscher
Special thanks to the original team: Martina Grohmann (Dramaturgy Theater Rampe), Anja Sackarendt (Dramaturgy Theater Lübeck), Laura Dreyer (Assistant Stage and costume design) and the technicians of the Theater Rampe.
Special thanks for spontanious help: Clara Paulau y Herrero for the construction of the Kokoons, Florence Carron, Jean-Marie Beillevaire, Barbara Hackenjos, Myron MCAdory, family Ledger, Anne Reijniers, Griet Pauwels, Jochem Baelus and Miroslav Kochanek for help with filming and set design in the different countries during the lockdown.
Website: studio panorama
Coproduction with Theater Lübeck and Theater Rampe. Funded by the Doppelpass Fund of the German Federal Cultural Foundation (Kulturstiftung des Bundes), by the Ministry of Science, Research and Art Baden-Württemberg, and the foundation of the Landesbank Baden-Württemberg.
