Peter Empl
David Weber-
Krebs:
The Death
of Ivan Ilyich
Performance
Performance
The performance »The Death of Ivan Ilyich« is an adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s homonymous novel, known for the accuracy and irony with which the dying process is depicted. »A direct face-to-face encounter with death«, as the author himself once defined it.
This adaptation takes the relationship between Ivan Ilyich and his compassionate servant Gerasim as the starting point for exploring a very specific relationship of care, the one for someone who is dying. As in Tolstoy’s novel, the performance gradually progresses towards a contraction of time and space that slowly leads to the death of the protagonist.
The spectators are gathered in a theatre to witness Ivan Ilyich passing away. In less than an hour, Ivan Ilyich will be dead. What is dying? When does it begin? And above all, when does it end?
David Weber-Krebs (BE/D) is an artist and a researcher based in Brussels and Ghent. He studied at the University of Fribourg (CH) and the Amsterdam School of the Arts (NL). David explores various contexts as a basis for an experimental process, which questions the traditional relationship between the work of art and its public. His performance »The Guardians of Sleep« was shown in the Schwankhalle in 2021. David is the curator of the series of performative conferences »On Enclosed Spaces and the Great Outdoors« (with Jeroen Peeters) in which they address this question: how are the arts (its questions, forms, research and discourses) challenged by climate change? He is also the initiator and editor of the book »and then the doors opened again« (Onomatopee) in which 75 authors imagine their first theatre visit after the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown. David Weber-Krebs is affiliated as a doctoral artistic researcher at KASK School of Arts/Ghent.
Concept & direction: David Weber-Krebs
Performance: Sonia Si Ahmed, Ezra Fieremans
Lighting design: Martin Kaffarnik
Sound design: Diana Duta
Dramaturgy: Clara Cucchi
Production: Simone Basani / Infinite Endings
Communication: Alice Ciresola
Commissioned by: Festival Wunder der Prärie: Care City in Mannheim
Thanks to: WpZimmer, C-takt, Kunstenwerkplaats
Eine Auftragsarbeit von Wunder der Prärie: Care City in Mannheim. Mit Dank an: wpzimmer, c-takt, kunstenwerkplaats. Gastspiel gefördert vom NFT - Netzwerk Freier Theater im Rahmen des Programms »Verbindungen fördern« des Bundesverbands Darstellende Künste, gefördert von der Beauftragten der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien.