Faking It

It’s time to leave the concrete city and carry out some rituals in the green forest. Forming a group, keeping together in time, moving our muscles rhythmically for a long period of time — these are some of the most meaningful activities we can imagine. 

Meaningful, yes, but what do they actually mean? That’s what we’re here to discover. We’re too old for the clearly structured rituals of forest kindergarten or scouting; nor or we eligible to participate in local preexisting initiation rituals such as military boot camp. Whatever meanings our rituals acquire will have to be created by ourselves. Making a dancing community requires a fundamental act of imagination. Or, to use a less charitable term, “faking it.”

“Faking It” is a site-specific production in the Dählhölzliwald of Bern, organized and coproduced by the Dampfzentrale Bern. The audience enters the forest as they would enter a theater. The stage looks amazingly like a forest. The mood is both ironic and bucolic.

“Faking It” is a melancholic-joyful celebration of hybridity, and an exploration of the genesis of imagined communities. It is the second 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.