Absent.e pour le moment
VIELLEICHT
Street names form a collective history. Cédric Djedje and Safi Martin Yé report on the 40-year struggle to re-name three streets in Berlin’s “African Quarter”. Video interviews with activists, stories of historic events and personal experiences coalesce into a clear political message.

Boglárka Börcsök & Andreas Bolm
FIGURING AGE
A touching evocation of ghosts: using video recordings and precise impersonations created by the young choreographer, three dancers who have passed away are brought back to life – and with them their moving life stories reflecting the freedom of modern dance and the oppression of 20th century ideologies.

caruso + avila
MI VIDA EN TRÁNSITO
MI VIDA EN TRÁNSITO documents an involuntary return to Argentina and the distress that follows. caruso + avila mould this into an affectionate dialogue about depression and hope that bridges thousands of kilometres of separation and the borderline between the real and the virtual.

Nadja Duesterberg im Rahmen von HAUS/DOMA von subbotnik
EXPECT A TIGER
Within the dark space stands a brightly lit kitchen with a long table in front of it for the audience. On the menu: four courses together with stories about the hard work in the kitchens of top restaurants. How can the evening be made unforgettable and everyone’s efforts be recognised in equal measure?

Nicoleta Esinencu
SINFONIE DES FORTSCHRITTS
Picking cucumbers, delivering packages, cleaning bloody abattoirs – three performers tell of people from Eastern Europe working in the West under degrading conditions. Repurposed jigsaws and cordless drills create the carpet of sound for this spoken concert.

Henrike Iglesias
FLAMES TO DUST
Inspired by the Death Positive movement and based on their own experiences, the collective Henrike Iglesias has created a show about mortality and grief from a consciously young perspective. With two performers and the audience’s telephones in the leading roles.

Müller / Diallo / Gurrola / Selimović
JUSTITIA! Identity Cases
Can it be advantageous to belong to a minority? For some jobs and sources of funding, definitely. But matters become heated when people make false claims to belong to a minority. Should this be dealt with by the courts? Or by online pile-ons? And what is at stake here for the theatre? Four activists tackle these issues in a fast-paced show about the relationship between theatre, the courts and social media.

Boris Nikitin
MAGDA TOFFLER. Versuch über das Schweigen
Boris Nikitin’s grandmother came from a Jewish family but kept this secret to herself until she died. Her grandson goes in search for the origins of silence. A captivatingly simple and direct monologue.

Jan Philipp Stange & Company
SZENARIO
The most important genre of contemporary art is the funding application. In SZENARIO (“Scenario”), this becomes the absurd book for a musical. Four forestry workers in a snowy landscape sing about “activities to achieve their objectives,” their “budget for funding and costs” and their individual struggles with work, poverty and personal fulfilment.

Theater im Bahnhof
DUDES halten endlich die Klappe
Finally – a play about old white men! Featuring two examples of the species and two twelve-year-old girls. Only this time the usual order of things has been reversed. The girls say what’s what and the dudes keep their mouths shut.

Oliver Zahn
STEINERNE GÄSTE
On stage can the artist can be seen with an empty podium. Orphaned plinths like this are the subject of STEINERNE GÄSTE (“Stone Guests”), which is concerned with the afterlife of toppled statues – after they have fallen, are they genuinely gone? A production that shifts between a sober lecture and bombastic opera music.

Production credits

Impulse jury 2023:
Kathrin Bieligk, Scout Austria
Tobias Brenk, Scout Switzerland
Finn Leon Çam, Audience scout FFT Düsseldorf
Haiko Pfost, Artistic directions Impulse Theater Festival, Scout cross-regional
Sahar Rahimi, Scout Southern Germany *
Wilma Renfordt, dramaturg Impulse Theater Festival, Scout Northern Germany

* Sahar Rahimi was not involved in the selection of the production DUDES.