What happens when grief turns from a temporary feeling into a permanent state? In “Natural Acts”, queer, disabled, interdisciplinary artist Perel and freelance artist and sign language choreographer Rita Mazza explore non-binary and non-linear forms of mourning, searching for strategies to make a sensual experience out of absence and loss. Using visual and narrative elements, the performance explores the effects of violence across generations, drawing the audience into the subject both emotionally and intellectually. In a space that appears to be upside down and turning in on itself, the events on stage are revealed and concealed in equal measure by massive fabric constructions. The artists’ choreography oscillates between movement and gesture, action and dance, text and language. Alternative seating landscapes create the conditions for the interplay of closeness and distance, challenge and sympathy between the audience and the performers. The piece shows how trauma and loss influence the brain and consequently our everyday actions by keeping the “never past” past alive. “Natural Acts” questions the prevailing culture of remembrance by employing physical experiences and offering the opportunity to confront the dark sides of oneself and of society.
Tournée
September 27.-30, 2024 | HAU, Berlin (Germany)
May 30, 2025 | Kampnagel Theater, Hamburg (Germany)
May 31, 2025 | Kampnagel Theater, Hamburg (Germany)
Credits
With: Perel
Direction, Concept, Text, and Performance: Perel
Performance: Rita Mazza
Composition: Dina Maccabee
Lighting Design: Joseph Wegmann, Hendrik Borowski
Costume: Russell Harris
Technical Direction and Stage Design: Jonas Droste
Production: Diana Paiva, Anna von Glasenapp / high expectations
Production Management: Carolina Brinkmann
Assistant Direction and Dramaturgy: Katharina Joy Book
Audio Description: Emmilou Rössling & Silja Korn
German Sign Language Interpretation: Alma Arnoul, Mille Skovdal Jepsen, Mathias Schäfer, Jona Schmitz
Dramaturgical Support: Dani Brown, Kenny Fries
Access Coordination: Rüzgâr Buşki
Communication and Mask Design: Rhama Corvalán
Film Documentation: Nadja Krüger, Greta Markurt
Photography: Maya Wallraff
Visual Art – Chaise lounge “Do you want us here or not (MMK)”: Courtesy of Finnegan Shannon and Deborah Schamoni
Supported by Europe Beyond Access. A production by Perel in co-production with HAU Hebbel am Ufer Berlin, Kampnagel Hamburg, and Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm.