The use of the photo is only free of charge in the context of the announcement of performances and with denomination of the author. Any further use of the photos, for example for illustration of reviews, shall be subject to payment of a fee. Please contact the photographer.
The use of the photo is only free of charge in the context of the announcement of performances and with denomination of the author. Any further use of the photos, for example for illustration of reviews, shall be subject to payment of a fee. Please contact the photographer.
The use of the photo is only free of charge in the context of the announcement of performances and with denomination of the author. Any further use of the photos, for example for illustration of reviews, shall be subject to payment of a fee. Please contact the photographer.
The use of the photo is only free of charge in the context of the announcement of performances and with denomination of the author. Any further use of the photos, for example for illustration of reviews, shall be subject to payment of a fee. Please contact the photographer.
The use of the photo is only free of charge in the context of the announcement of performances and with denomination of the author. Any further use of the photos, for example for illustration of reviews, shall be subject to payment of a fee. Please contact the photographer.
That’s bullshit: slang for something that’s false, discredited, nonsense. Or something that is made up, fake, misleading, a deception.
On an empty stage, She She Pop find themselves as salespeople in the endless loop of a sales show. Everything’s on offer. On and on goes the search for something they can still put a value on, only to sell it off. Can they still grasp reality with their senses, describe it with words? Can it still be saved? Can anything withstand the clearance? She She Pop have lost their orientation. The central perspective – which taught them how to focus on any goal – has dissolved. Along with the audience, the performers find themselves in a state of free fall. There’s a a schism between events and the words that describe them. And into this abyss they fall deeper and deeper.
In Bullshit, She She Pop courageously confront the loss of a shared reality. They acknowledge that they know nothing, that even the poetic reality of the theatre space has been affected. So they try to leave the bubble of their perception to take on other proportions, to see other colors, to communicate like a bat with sonar, and to find themselves in absolute darkness. Embracing uncertainty, they dedicate themselves to unlearning and to imagining different ways of seeing. Can they succeed in creating a positive experience out of the chaos, in finding meaning in randomness, in creating sense in the confusion of possibilities – or, as a last resort, in declaring bankruptcy to be a comedy?
Trailer
Credits
Concept/Idea: She She Pop, Created and performed by: Sebastian Bark, Johanna Freiburg, Lisa Lucassen, Mieke Matzke, Ilia Papatheodorou, Berit Stumpf.
Artistic Advise: Rodrigo Zorzanelli, Director of Photography & Video Installation: Benjamin Krieg, Technical Videodesign Consultant: L Wilson-Spiro, Stage: Philine Rinnert, Costumes: Lea Søvsø, Costumes Assistance: Margarita Rozhkova, Light Design: Michael Lentner, Technical Director: Claes Schwennen, Music, Sounddesign, Sound installation: Santiago Blaum, Sound, Support Sounddesign: Manuel Louis Horstmann, Live Sound Mix: Santiago Blaum, Manuel Louis Horstmann, Dramaturgical Advise: Lidiia Golovanova, Intern: Neïtah Janzing, English Live Translation: PANTHEA, Audio Description: Pingpong Translation & Subtitling, PR & Communication: ehrliche arbeit – freelance office for culture, Communication: Tina Ebert, Production: Tina Ebert, Aminata Oelßner, Elke Weber, Company Management: Aminata Oelßner, Elke Weber.
A production by She She Pop in Co-production with HAU Hebbel am Ufer Berlin, Kampnagel Hamburg, Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm, FFT Düsseldorf, Residenz Schauspiel Leipzig, HELLERAU – Europäisches Zentrum der Künste. Supported by: Theaterhaus Berlin Mitte.
Funded by Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion Berlin and the German Federal Cultural Foundation.
Press
FAZ, Eva-Maria Magel, 24. November 2024
They (…) were treated to a performance in which no one is too embarrassed to put the literally naked facts, even those of a no longer young female body, at the service of doubt, of questioning what one knows or thinks one knows and what is now crumbling and crumbling. (…) It’s been a long time since we’ve seen anything as intense as “Bullshit” from the icons of the German-language performance scene.
taz, Jenni Zylka, 31. October 2024
Yet She She Pop explore the immaterial further: Wouldn’t it be nice to encounter the world in completely new ways, the group muses – and presents a miniature dialogue-based encounter with animals on stage. (…) “What do you actually have against herds?”, Smarty Sheep philosophises or rather ultimately bleats to the performer – thus questioning the principle of selfish individualism. That there is just as much to criticise about human herd behaviour will then be explored in the next performance, which is sure to be just as great.
Berliner Morgenpost, Georg Kasch, 30. October 2024
Wonderful references to theatre and life are in the commercial break, e.g. when Bark wants to sell the pillar of the stage portal that separates everything into above and below, reality and fiction – and without which the theatre would collapse (as it will soon anyway, see Berlin’s current cultural politics). (…) After 90 short minutes, the old world has been sold and a new one only just been sketched out, the old community has been privatised and a new one just emerging. Much here remains unclear. But this is also an opportunity, because this evening leaves one thinking even longer about whether we have really exhausted all possibilities of staying in dialogue with each other.
Berliner Zeitung, Doris Meierhenrich, 30. October 2024
For now the evening can enter into its true state of transformation, even attempt an existential leap. A new theatre – that is also a new form of perceiving, speaking and being. Above all, a different type of hearing, perhaps with echolocation like bats? (…) We have taken the first step into a new world of perception. Everything is still very dark here, but you can hear the scratching and flapping of wings, and perhaps we will soon learn the alphabet of sound waves.
Deutschlandfunk Kultur, Fazit, Tobi Müller, 29. October 2024
It’s no longer clear whether they are people or animals. You only see very blurred images on black and white televisions, much is in the dark. We are left very much guessing what kind of metamorphosis will take place after this cleansing, after this sell-out. We have never seen this illusionistic method from this group before. They have really broken new ground.
