2024
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?
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, Video Support: Guillaume Cailleau, Stage: Philine Rinnert, Costumes: Lea Søvsø, Costumes Assistance: Margarita Rozhkova, Support Realisation Costumes: Emma Cattell, Simon Kernen, Music, Sounddesign, Sound installation: Santiago Blaum, Sound, Support Sounddesign: Manuel Louis Horstmann, Live Sound Mix: Santiago Blaum, Manuel Louis Horstmann, Light Design: Michael Lentner, Technical Director: Claes Schwennen, 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.
Photos: Benjamin Krieg
