Gob Squad

Gob Squad is a seven-headed monster with one body, an artist*s collective with many bosses. A schizophrenic identity and multiple split personality – bisexual, binational, bilingual (English/German). A patchwork family and a social utopia. Together they have been working on the conception, staging and presentation of live performances in the border area of theater, art and media since 1994. For 25 years, Gob Squad have been constantly searching for new forms and ways of medial and performative expression and accordingly switch between the formats of stage performance, video installation, interactive live film and urban intervention. For their works, they usually choose a medial mediation to expose longing and desire under the digital and pixelated surface of the 21st century. Alienated forms of intimacy become the central theme.

Gob Squad was founded in Nottingham (England) from former students of Nottingham Trent University and graduates of the Applied Theater Studies Giessen. Since 1999 Berlin has become the artistic center and production location. Permanent members are: Johanna Freiburg, Sean Patten, Sharon Smith, Berit Stumpf, Sarah Thom, Bastian Trost and Simon Will. They are joined by Eva Hartmann for management and a pool of collaborators with whom the group works in changing constellations.

With early works, Gob Squad already found a style that has received international attention since their successful appearance at the documenta X theater sketches (1997). Their productions have since been shown throughout much of the world (including India, Australia, South Korea, Brazil, Canada, and the United States), where projects such as SUPER NIGHT SHOT (2003), GOB SQUAD’S KITCHEN (2007, awarded the Drama Desk Award NY 2012), SAVING THE WORLD (2008, awarded the Goethe-Institut Prize at the Impulse Festival 2010), REVOLUTION NOW! (2010), BEFORE YOUR VERY EYES (2011, selected for the German Theatertreffen 2012), WESTERN SOCIETY (2013), CREATION (Pictures for Dorian) (2018), I LOVE YOU, GOODBYE (THE BREXIT EDITION) (2019) and most recently SHOW ME A GOOD TIME (2020) have become sought-after export hits. In 2020, Gob Squad was awarded the Tabori Prize by the Fonds Darstellende Künste for significantly shaping national and international theater aesthetics. In 2021, Gob Squad received the Friedrich Luft Prize for SHOW ME A GOOD TIME.