Concept: Gob Squad / Devised and performed by: Johanna Freiburg, Sean Patten, Tatiana Saphir, Sharon Smith, Berit Stumpf, Sarah Thom, Bastian Trost, Simon Will / Sound design: Sebastian Bark, Julio Zúñiga / Video design: Miles Chalcraft, Eliana Sola Bussas / Set and costume design: Nina von Mechow, Amir Baltić / Lighting design and technical management: Chris Umney, Leo Schneidermann / Dramaturgy and production management: Christina Runge / Dramaturgical advisor: Pauli Patinen / Live-translation Berlin: PANTHEA – Irina Bondas / Artistic collaboration: Katharina Joy Book, Ben Goldby, Simon Kernen, Anna Zrenner / Set and costume assistant: Tina Hübner / Company management team: Heleen De Boever, Caroline Gentz, Talea Schuré, Grischa Schwiegk / With special thanks to: Annika Schaper, Robert Richter and all test audiences at rehearsals in Berlin and Wien
Gob Squad
Doppelgänger/Doppelganger
- Theatre
German /
English /
with English or German live translation /
approx. 90 mins.
Who are we – and who else might we be? Gob Squad invites you to a surreal party where identities shift, doppelgängers appear, and the audience becomes part of a playful quest for the self and our shared sense of ‘we’.
Where do we begin? Literally where do we, the thing that we think of as us, and the thing that you think of as you, where does that begin?
“Doppelgänger/Doppelganger” is a journey down the rabbit hole into a hall of mirrors where everything we believe ourselves to be – unique and unmistakable – starts to unravel and multiply. In a world of duplication and projection, of forgetting and remembering, and of eternal self-mythologising, the performers of Gob Squad find themselves stuck in a seemingly endless party. But no one seems to remember what exactly there is to celebrate. Wasn’t it someone’s birthday?
There’s cake and balloons, and everything is captured on camera: someone has taken a photograph, and it looks like they’re having a good time.
Trapped in a party loop, Gob Squad turns to the audience for reasons to celebrate, searching for possible doppelgangers, to expand and confront themselves, to switch off entirely or to dissolve into many. The dance with the self begins but who is leading whom here, and through whose story? And who decides what happens next?
The party tips over into a surreal vision full of unexpected twists, in which different identities and voices fight relentlessly to be heard, and our shared responsibility for something that is greater than ourselves strikes us as a utopian déjà vu.
Team
Dates
Current
Further Information
Visitor note
Price: 17-29€, reduced 9-20€
24.+26.9.: With English live translation
25.+27.9.: With German live translation
27.9., 16:15: Introduction with Sean Patten (Gob Squad) and Gábor Thury (Curator Theatre & Performance) / German
Credits
Production: Gob Squad. Co-production: HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Wiener Festwochen I Freie Republik Wien, &Espoo Theatre. Funded by: Hauptstadtkulturfonds. Gob Squad is regularly funded by the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion.
Location
HAU2
Hallesches Ufer 34, 10963 BerlinThere are two marked parking spots in front of the building. Barrier-free restroom facilities are available. Four relaxed seats are available in the first row of HAU2.
