Spectacular world premiere

In the Sindelfingen district of Darmsheim near Stuttgart, there is a quarry. Everywhere across Europe there is AKHE which  has long wanted to play with a such location. For the festival finale, the two finally come together in a spectacular world premiere.

 

 

The quarry itself already has everything AKHE is drawn to in a stage: an extraordinary setting, movement and a dynamic energy of its own. AKHE, in turn, has always wanted to perform within a landscape like this.

Beyond Fun festival chose for the finale  FAUST.LABOR – a visually striking, kinetic drama about the attempt to understand the world, about sacrifice and the consequences of renunciation and hubris. The true profit of this collaboration lies in the way real machines, producing actual materials, interact artistically with the theatrical elements. These stage elements—crafted from paper, wood, sand, clay, and glue—harmonize with the industrial setting significantly strengthen the plot and concept of the play.

FAUST.LABOR is part of AKHE’s long-standing exploration of the figure of Faust. The first production, Faust cubed.2360 words, was created in 2005. Parts of the text used in that performance also appear in FAUST.LABOR.

FAUST.LABOR, however, is a production in its own right, combining the Faust story with a new world of machines, objects and movement.

On stage and throughout the quarry, moving objects, homemade machines, music, circus and plenty of movement come together. For FAUST.LABOR, machines and mechanisms become a world of their own. Elements of contemporary circus, an interactive concert, music by theatre composer Denis Antonov and surprising objects add to the experience.

The result is a genre-defying spectacle somewhere between theatre, concert, installation and circus.Ultimately, this project represents a unique opportunity rarely seen in the cultural landscape: a true collaboration and interpenetration of material and spiritual production. It is something that simply must be seen!

 

https://www.kulturregion-stuttgart.de/events/festival-abschluss