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“we would never leave the world like this. that’s why we put you here. you hear us?”
– Alexis Pauline Gumbs, “Dub: Finding Ceremony”
In their latest production, Gob Squad use their phones to send live voice messages from the urban space into the dark void of the theatre. Cut off from the world beyond, the audience witnesses a 21st century seance. A sparse landscape of invisible spirits manifest news and sonic evidence of truths that seem to have disappeared from our daily lives, despite being all around us. Gob Squad act as mediums who wander between two worlds in order to establish contact and break through to the other side. On their journeys, details such as items discarded by the roadside become just as significant as a change in temperature or atmospheric conditions. Encounters with things, animals and plants provide answers to questions, passers-by give clues to the unresolved. Gradually the incoming messages condense into a collage of sounds, filling the empty stage and developing a life of their own. Eventually items and spirits emerge from the fog and make the worlds appear more permeable through their appearance. In the flash of the possibility of a real exchange, what feels far away suddenly comes very close to us and becomes a tangible moment of the here and now.
News from Beyond invites us to overcome barriers of time and space and ‘seeing is believing’. What separates us? And who or what do we want to connect with? Which voices do we dare to follow? And can we exorcise the ghosts of our present to imagine a reconnected future?
Gob Squad (Berlin) is a seven-headed monster, a multinational arts collective with seven bosses, a patchwork family, a Berliner institution and a social utopia. Gob Squad have been devising, directing and performing together since 1994, working where theatre meets art, media and real life. Always on the hunt for beauty amidst the mundane, they place their work at the heart of urban life. Everyday life and magic, banality and idealism, reality and entertainment are all set on a collision course and the unpredictable results are captured on video. Motivated by a desire for collective experience and meaningful encounters, they often invite local guests, audience members or passers-by to step beyond their traditional roles and look for ways to transcend barriers of language, class, age and culture. Core members are Johanna Freiburg, Sean Patten, Sharon Smith, Berit Stumpf, Sarah Thom, Bastian Trost and Simon Will joined by a pool of collaborating artists.
Concept: Gob Squad
Devised by: Oska Melina Borcherding, Johanna Freiburg, Mmakgosi Kgabi, Sean Patten, Sharon Smith, Berit Stumpf, Sarah Thom, Bastian Trost and Simon Will
Performed by: möödujad ning neli eelmainitut / passersby and four of the above
Composition and sound Design: Manuela Schininà
Live Sound Design and Sound Technician: Catalina Fernandez
Set Design: Amina Nouns
Costumes: Emma Cattell, Sarah Thom
Lighting design: Chris Umney, Lea Schneidermann
Technical management: Chris Umney
Dramaturgy, production: Christina Runge
Artistic Assistance: Helene von Schirach, Anna Zrenner
Set and costumes Assistance: Carla Lou Schäfer
Intern: Jola Hauschild
Company Management Team: Heleen De Boever, Caroline Gentz, Talea Schuré, Grischa Schwiegk
Production: Gob Squad
Co-production: HAU Hebbel am Ufer Berlin, FFT Düsseldorf, Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm Frankfurt/Main, Kanuti Gildi SAAL
Funded by: Hauptstadtkulturfonds, Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion, Goethe Institut Tallinn
Supported by: theaterhaus berlin
Special thanks: Sladja Blažan
Gob Squad Arts Collective is regularly funded within concept funding 2024 – 2027 Berlin, Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion.
Esietendus / Premiere: 5.02.2025 HAU Hebbel am Ufer Berlin (HAU1)
In English
Duration: ~90’
Accessible by wheelchair. If possible, please let us know in advance if you are coming with a mobility aid!
The performance on 26.08 has Estonian sign language translation.
Kanuti Guild Hall • Pikk tänav 20, 10133 Tallinn, Harju maakond, Estonia
