Vom Dorf

Summer theatre for the opening of Kulturarena Jena 2023

City and countryside are supposedly far apart. We live in our own bubbles and have hardly any points of contact. We are often confronted with clichés—of, for example, right-wing, backward villagers or arrogant, patronizing city dwellers. But is that really the case? Is it true?

To explore this, Theaterhaus Jena traveled to the rural periphery of Thuringia to enter into dialogue with people there:
“What do you think of us? What do you love about your village? Do you feel left behind? What are you afraid of?”

Along the way, they encountered stories that only life itself can write: the banal and the touching, the unsettling and the loving.

Based on these interviews and encounters, the actors created characters and scenes that transform the theater’s forecourt into a fictional village square. Documentary material merges with imagined, free play. Rustic folk-theater spectacle meets absurd, contradictory performance. High culture on a traveling stage. Village techno meets jazz.

A teeming panorama for everyone. City and village.

VOM DORF (c) Luise Hoppe

Cast

By and with: Pina Bergemann, Nikita Buldyrski, Henrike Commichau, Linde Dercon, Leon Pfannenmüller, Anna K. Seidel, Paul Wellenhof

Live music: Moritz Bossmann (composition, live electronics, guitar), Wilhelm Hinkel (drums, trumpet), Heike Besen (sousaphone), Jason Liebert (trombone)

Direction: Lizzy Timmers
Set + lighting: Maarten van Otterdijk
Costumes: Carolin Pflüger, Lara Scheuermann
Dramaturgy: Jakob Roth
Research: Alina Spieler, Jakob Roth, Lizzy Timmers
Assistant director: Nanine Maria Kok

A co-production by Theaterhaus Jena and JenaKultur.
With the kind support of JENOPTIK AG.

Acknowledgements: We would like to thank Michael Gotschald and the Golmsdorf Youth Club for lending the hay wagon for the band; Jens Kranzel from Laasdorf for lending the tractor; the Westsportplatz Initiative e.V. for the maypole; Schauspielhaus Düsseldorf for the loan of the cows; and the many donors of motorcycle helmets.
The spruce tree was sponsored by: Jena-Holzland Forestry Office.

„Vom Dorf“: In Jena erforscht ein Open-Air-Theater die Stadt-Land-Verhältnisse// DLF Kultur, Rang 1

Photos »Vom Dorf« (c) Joachim Dette

Press

In der OTZ / TLZ war von Ulrike Merkel zu lesen:
»...ein leichter und vergnüglicher Abend, mit vielen Gags, großartigen Schauspielern und eingängigen Songs von und mit der Dorfcombo The Happy Villagers. Das Publikum dankt es mit Jubel.«
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