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Ironic-bucolic forest rituals

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.

Teaser

CHOREOGRAPHY

Joshua Monten

DANCE

Alina Lugovskaya
Yiorgos Pelegias
Hannah Thomas
Jack Wignall

DRAMATURGY

Manon Krüttli

COSTUME/SET DESIGN

Romy Springsguth

LIGHT DESIGN

Tonio Finkam

SOUND DESIGN

Matthias Schoch

APPRENTICES

Yumio Chanoki
Mariana Morales Tomaz
Larissa de Villa

PRODUCED BY

Tough Love

COPRODUCTION

Dampfzentrale Bern
Theater Hameln

WE GRATEFULLY ACKNOWLEDGE FINANCIAL SUPORT FROM THE FOLLOWING ORGANIZATIONS

Kultur Stadt Bern
SWISSLOS / Kultur Kanton Bern
Burgergemeinde Bern
Migros Kulturprozent
Parrotia-Stiftung
Stiftung Anne-Marie Schindler
Ernst Göhner Stiftung
Else v. Sick Stiftung
Bürgi-Willert-Stiftung
Stanley Thomas Johnson Stiftung

PERFORMANCE HISTORY

26 August 2023 — Dahlhölzliwald, Bern (CH) — premiere of outdoor version
27 August 2023 — Dahlhölzliwald, Bern (CH)
1 September 2023 — Dahlhölzliwald, Bern (CH) — school performance
2 September 2023 — Dahlhölzliwald, Bern (CH)
3 September 2023 — Dahlhölzliwald, Bern (CH)
1 November 2023 — Theater Hameln (D) — premiere of indoor version
3-5 November 2023 (3x) — Dock 11 Berlin (D)

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