Anger Management

“Anger Management” is a celebration of the volcano inside each of us. Bright red, glistening, full of explosive energy, willful, fast and fearless — human beings are especially thrilling to watch when they’re glowing with anger.

To heighten the thrill of our project (and the safety of its participants), we’ll be collaborating with a stage combat coach (just as we did in  2016 for our stage- combat dance production “Joy”). Managing the physical interactions between raging characters on stage is an intricate and demanding art form. Together our team will develop paths of non-verbal communication, rules of engagement and rituals of aggression. We may develop “safe spaces” for safely giving physical expression to our anger, outfitting them with pillows and mattresses, and exploring at length the fantastic possibilities contained within the idea of a “pillow fight.” We’ll also be incorporating spoken text — for instance revisiting classic texts such as Marshall Rosenberg’s “Nonviolent Communication” or Harriet Lerner’s feminist self-help guide “The Dance of Anger” — as we invite the audience to reflect on their own patterns of viewing anger.

Should anger be managed? Most of the time, surely, YES. And yet with this production we wish to linger on the possibility of saying NO. To imagine for the space of an hour what it would be like to give free reign to our wrath, to strip away the civilized manners and the fake smiles, to open the floodgates, and to see where the currents carry us. Many possible consequences are conceivable. Among them, we anticipate new forms of reconciliation, intimacy and empowerment.

“Anger Management” is the third part of the “Counterfeit” trilogy, which has been supported by a multi-year production grant from the City of Bern for the years 2022-2024.