Manuel Gerst:
Die Verwandlung
Performance / Happening
Gregor Samsa wakes up one morning transformed into a giant vermin. His family’s pity soon turns to alienation and aggression; the last anchors to the sphere of the human are his beloved sister’s violin playing and an erotically charged image of a lady in fur. In the end, his death is a redemption for all.
Manuel Gerst brings Kafka’s famous story to the stage as a happening from the event industry. References to bachelor parties and the reduction of aggression in groups meet action art and destruction art. Kafka’s parable is read here as a story about disability, in the field of tension between being injured and being intact. The aggression towards the deformed other in the story is turned into aggression against the object on stage. In the end, it doesn’t matter what position the audience takes – the dent remains the same. Let he who is without sin cast the first apple.
In his previous works, Manuel Gerst has repeatedly questioned and subverted existing power relations in theater in various constellations, including under the label Monster Truck. In his works he often deals with the thematic field of “disability” and economies in theater. »Die Verwandlung« is his first work at Ballhaus Ost.
Instagram @manuelgerst ↗
Credits
Concept/Direction: Manuel Gerst
Dramaturgy: Matthias Meppelink
Artistic Collaboration/Music: Mark Schröppel
Production Management: ehrliche arbeit – freies Kulturbüro
A production by Rahimi+Gerst GbR in cooperation with Ballhaus Ost. Funded by the Berliner Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalt.