Dying Together
DYING TOGETHER is performed by both the performers and the spectators. The public is invited to participate in a physically executed thought exercise in which recent situations and images are experienced from within. The joint death is the central theme and throws new light on the way we relate to each other. In a gradually changing constellation of people, with slowly successive minimal shifts in the physical relationship between them, a multicoloured pallet of possible relationships becomes visible.
There are two versions of DYING TOGETHER that both focus on the question if moments of collective death can tell us something about how we relate to each other in life. Both versions approach this in a different way.
DYING TOGETHER / Humans premiered on 11 October 2018 at Theater Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
DYING TOGETHER / Earth premiered on 4 October 2019 at Schauspielhaus Bochum, Germany.
humans
DYING TOGETHER / Humans looks at the relationship between individuals and explores the value we assign to the life, and death, of people in different parts of the world. How much do we value the death of someone killed in a Paris attack, and how much that of someone who drowns when a boat capsizes in the Mediterranean? Can looking at these moments of collective death offer us fresh insights on how we live together?
In DYING TOGETHER / Humans the following real-life events are explored:
– The crash of the Germanwings flight 9525;
– The sinking of a boat off the coast of the Italian island Lampedusa;
– The terrorist attack on the Bataclan nightclub in Paris.
earth
DYING TOGETHER / Earth is about the relationship between humans, animals and plants and explores how we value the life and the death, of all living creatures on earth. We pay attention to the extinction of large and small ecosystems in different parts of the world. And also ask ourselves whether, by looking at how we die together, we might gain new insights on how we live together.
In DYING TOGETHER / Earth the following real-life events (subject to alteration) are explored:
- The break-out of the mad cow disease in Great Britain around 20 years ago.
- The transformation of the ecosystem of the Amazon Rainforest into an ecosystem for business.
- The suicide of a Japanese businessman in Aokigahara Forest.
At the end of every performance, the audience writes a reflection (a moment, an experience). These reflections are added to the online archive after each performance. Read all the reflections here archiveofreflections.nl
‘In Dying Together you enter a different world, a limbo between life and death which puts you in a state of wakefulness. In the form of large-scale constellation the audience undergoes three situations of dying together. This results in a unique experience in which you are yourself but also not, in which you watch yourself and your instinctive reactions, but also those of the other participants. Lotte van den Berg takes us on another journey to the limits of theatre and the heart of being a human.’
Rainer Hofmann - director of SPRING festival.
Concept & direction Lotte van den Berg (performer) in collaboration with Floor van Leeuwen (performer), Gerindo Kamid Kartadinata (performer), Justyna Wielgus (performer), Matteo Bifulco (performer), Lukas von der Lühe (performer), Nahuel Cano (performer), Salomé Mooij (performer), Josefine Rahn (performer), Polly Lapkovskaya (composition), Vinny Jones & Breg Horemans (light & stage set), Tobias Staab (dramaturg), Jakob Proyer (head of production), Vincent Beune (technical director), Kate McIntosh (artistic consultant), Alexander Nieuwenhuis, Julien McHardy & Kinan Mohammad (research), Tristan Krap, Forensic scientist, Ars Cogniscendi (special adviser), Jasper van den Berg (campaign image). With thanks to Yola Parie, Yoka van Zuijlen, Michiel Vaanhold, Salih Kilic, Rogier Cloïn, Yke Maas, Edd Vossen, Kirsten Heshusius, Eveleen Hamers, Marten De Paepe and all the audiences who attended the open rehearsals.
Photography by Salih Kilic and Kris Dewitte
Produced by Third Space in co-production with Theater Rotterdam (NL), Schauspielhaus Bochum (DE), Festival BLVRD (NL), Vooruit (BE), BUDA (BE), SoAP (NL), BIT Teatergarasjen (NO), Nanterre- Amandiers (FR).
Co-producers
Funders
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