Electric shadows

This wordless show by Berlin-based Melanie Florschütz and Michael Döhnert revolves around the rotation of a turbine. It spins back and forth, silently accelerating or whirring, crackling and crackling. At its touch, the objects in this fantastic machinery are transformed and freed from their usual uses. As if by magic, chairs, coats, buckets and other objects come to life, changing shape and material, and unfolding in a play of projection and volume that's strangely disconcerting. Shadow theater joins slapstick of silent cinema for an enchanting flight. After creating the adventures of a white rabbit and a bottomless trouser pocket for very young spectators (Ssst!), or those of a mischievous hole (A little hole in the ground)They shake up our perception of space and time. Reality wavers, and shadows seem to detach themselves from the forms that generate them, dancing across the backdrop. Our duo of stagehands find themselves catapulted with us into a mysterious universe full of surprises.

Melanie Florschütz studied puppet theater at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Stuttgart, and Michael Döhnert turns to music and composition. They have been working together since 1996, and since 2004 have been developing a visual stage language that dispenses with text. Their research pursues the idea of telling stories in different ways, through associations of ideas. The duo sets up signs and invites us to decode them. Using music, sound and acting to animate objects, they compose their pieces with a particular concern for rhythm and choreography. In 2012, they were joined by director and lighting designer Joachim Fleischer, with whom they create installations, architecture, robotics and theater projects.

" It's this pleasure in creating surprise that we perceive in their wordless shows (...). Part clown, part poet, they transform everyday objects into elements of curiosity. "
TéléramaFrançoise Sabatier-Morel, 01/2019

florschuetz-doehnert.de