lest_dresden

First version, ‘Eine Stimme’, is for Dresden.

Premieres in German only: 11 - 20 april 2013

info in German here / booking info here

> English version premieres August 28 2013 at Vooruit, Gent, Belgium

concept - ant hampton

text - Tim Etchells & Ant Hampton

dramaturgy / research assistant – Jessica Huber

translation - Karen Witthuhn / Transfiction

audio platform / development – Toby Duckworth

recording advice – Tito Toblerone

voices - Katja Dreyer, Marco Wittorf

thanks also to - Kate McIntosh, Britt Hatzius, Stefan Kaegi, Mladen Dolar

A «Second Cities – Performing Cities» Production – A European Network Operated By: Hellerau – European Center For The Arts Dresden (Ger), Kaserne Basel (Ch), Ringlokschuppen Mülheim An Der Ruhr (Ger), Tap – Théâtre Et Auditorium De Poitiers (Fr), Le Maillon, Théâtre De Strasbourg, Scène Européenne (Fr), Spring – Performing Arts Festival Utrecht (Nl), Teatr Laznia Nowa, Nowa Huta/Cracow (Pl).

With the support of the Culture Programme of the European Union.

Lest We See Where We Are is a site-specific work, adaptable to wherever it is presented. It’s a «Second Cities – Performing Cities» production, and will be shown in cities including Dresden, Gent, Utrecht, Basle and Nowa Huta (Krakow) during 2013 - 2014

*

You're standing in the street holding a large radio against your chest. The voice coming out of it is loud, and reverberates in the street. But unlike the amplified rants we sometimes hear in central squares, focussing on singular matters of politics, religion etc, this voice you're 'holding' doesn't seem to be very sure of itself. Wracked with worry, it addresses the public more as one might a personal therapist, ridiculously exposed, openly tripping up and contradicting itself as it works through ideas and fears in real time.

No-one actually hears the voice though, except you. People walk by. The sound of the voice resonating around you is relayed binaurally to the headphones you're wearing, and made palpable via synchronised and inaudible bass tones vibrating the radio in your arms. As the sole listener you're at once following what's being said and imagining being responsible for it.

Lest We See Where We Are is Ant Hampton’s latest in a series of 'autoteatro' works exploring voice - ignored or buried aspects of it - and the second made together with Tim Etchells. Appearing almost as an opposite to their collaboration The Quiet Volume (for 'Parallel Cities', 2010), which explored the inner voice through whispers, Lest.. is instead concerned with ennunciation, articulation, and what Kleist called 'das Verfertigen der Gedanken beim Reden' - The Manufacture of Ideas while Speaking. Beginning indoors, safe behind a window with a view onto the outside world, the challenge today becomes clear. Like a blocked-up radio, we're filled to the brim with voices, with information about the world. Time now to go outside and at least attempt an articulation, to fail publicly if need be, to keep trying, and to make the effort contagious.

Faces along the bar

Cling to their average day:

The lights must never go out,

The music must always play,

All the conventions conspire

To make this fort assume

The furniture of home;

Lest we should see where we are,

Lost in a haunted wood,

Children afraid of the night

Who have never been happy or good.

- from SEPTEMBER 1, 1939 - W.H.Auden