POST THEATER has created a manual to conduct a performance titled “Fight Club: A Chorus”. POST THEATER has commissioned artists to implement this manual and create the performance that is described / prescribed in this manual. The concept of the “mass-performance” prescribes 48 performers on stage out of which 42 are professionals of
non-artistic professions (ideally corporate work-force / “cubicle workers”) and 6 are professionals in the performing arts (performers / directors / choreographers).
The goal of the performance is to connect artists with non-artists and create a process that destabilizes mutual stereotypes as well as the perception of the own workplace. There is no fighting involved. The novel / movie “Fight Club” (by Chuck Palahniuk / David Fincher) is not important for the project – the source’s idea of forming a subversive group is.
“Fight Club: A Chorus” challenges the question of identity on two levels. 1) the participants’ professional lives influence the form and content of the piece. 2) the theatrical situation of audience and performers and their relationship
This switch of roles and the urge to find alternatives to the everyday life in the consumer society are the core of the source of inspiration “Fight Club”.
The technical principle behind the performance is a programmed (with the software MAX/MSP) vertical video projection (floor projection) tht guides the participants through a choreography. Additional texts and sounds are prompted via speakers. All is filmed from a vertical camera and projected live to a screen. Media art provides orientation, serves as the only lighting source and creates a space.
The performance premiered in Singapore under the artistic direction of Daniel Kok at the National Museum of Singapore (November 2007).
The Berlin version in October / November 2008 involved the non-artistic staff of the State Opera Berlin. In this case, POST THEATER followed its own instructions, having 6 local artists on board.
Premiere and Touring
Premiere:
November 2007
National Museum of Singapore
October 2008
State Opera Berlin
Press Quotes
“…fresh short appearances!”
(Daniel Wixforth in Der Tagesspiegel, 1. November 2008)
“The evening convinces with its formal strictness that has been prescribed by a manual in the rehearsal process. And the performance’s dialectic of liberation and re-introduced standardization is much more intelligent than the one-dimensional ideology of emancipation that the old generation of famous theater directors still tries to sell us as the newest hype.”
(Jan Brachmann in Berliner Zeitung, 1. November 2008)
Documentation
Credits
Artistic direction / concept: Hiroko Tanahashi, Max Schumacher
Choreographer for the Singapore version: Daniel Kok
Choreographers for the Berlin version: Gudrun Herrbold, Bettina Holzhausen, Matthieu Burner, Martin Clausen, Christoph Winkler, Siegmar Zacharias
Performers for the Singapore version: 48 local representatives of the population
Performers for the Berlin version: 40 non-artistic staff members of the Berlin State Opera
Media art: Hiroko Tanahashi, Yoann Trellu
Sound art: Sibin Vassilev
Programming: Yoann Trellu
Project assistant: Esther Schelander
Production management: Mario Stumpfe
Funded by the National Museum Singapore, Hauptstadtkultufonds Berlin. Supported by
State Opera Berlin