“No one makes themselves. (...) We all make and unmake one another.”
Naomi Klein – Doppelganger
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 themselves, to confront
themselves, to switch themselves 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.
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
Set and costume design Nina von Mechow, Amir Baltić
Light design and technical management Chris Umney Dramaturgy
Dramaturgy and Production Management: Christina Runge
Dramaturgical Advisor: Pauli Patinen
Artistic Collaboration: Katharina Joy Book, Ben Goldby, Simon Kernen
Set and Costumes Assistance: Tina Hübner
PRODUCTION
Production Gob Squad Coproduction Vienna Festival (Wiener Festwochen) I Free
Republic of Vienna, HAU Hebbel am Ufer Berlin, & Espoo Theatre
www.espoonteatteri.fi/en
