DISASTER (2018)

A theater game about game theater, complete with delusions of grandeur, anguish, and an invisible rat.

It’s the same as it always is: As in previous adventures, the Berlin game theatre collective machina eX invites the audience to explore interactive spaces, solve puzzles, and navigate its way through a story together. But this time something is amiss. The game is broken. The game is unfinished. The game’s designer is desperate. This was supposed to be her big break:
Immersive, participatory, narrative, subversive— a ludo-hermeneutic earthquake!

But however you look at it, the game is a disaster. In DISASTER, machina eX takes audience members behind the scenes, inviting them to participate in the process of creating a game. Inevitably, questions of power and control arise, which go beyond aesthetic discourse. How do we deal with systems of control? And how can we create consensus around rules?

Premiere / Venues

Premiere in December 2018 at the HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin

May 2019 at the FFT Düsseldorf

December 2019 at the ROXY Birsfelden

An adult sits on a narrow bed, looking frightened and holding a doll to their chest.
Several people lean over a table containing test tubes and empty canning jars.
Several people lean over a table containing test tubes and empty canning jars.
Several people stand around small standing desks with telephones, holding the phone receivers to their ears. In the background is a person behind a golden tinsel curtain.
Several people stand in a circle around small standing desks with telephones, holding the phone receivers to their ears.
A person carries a cage equipped for a small animal.
A person looks harriedly at a piece of paper pasted to the wall in a chaotic kitchen.
Two people stand at desks with yellow telephones on them, holding the phone receivers to their ears.

Credit: Dorothea Tuch

Concept: machina eX /// Performance: Katharina Bill, Martin Schnippa /// Text and Game Design: Clara Ehrenwerth /// Direction and Set Design: Anan Fries /// Technical Direction and Programming: Lasse Marburg /// Dramaturgy and Game Design: Yves Regenass /// Music and Sound Design: Malu Peeters /// Electronics andProgramming: Sebastian Arnd /// Lighting Consulting: Eva G. Alonso /// Production Assistance: Eva Budniewski /// With thanks to: Barbara Lenartz /// Production management: Sina Kießling

Production: machina eX. Co-production: HAU Hebbel am Ufer, FFT Düsseldorf, ROXY Birsfelden. Funded by the Berlin Senate Department of Culture and Europe, Dance & Theater Technical Committee BS/BL.