FLAMES TO DUST
Grief performance Theatre & Performance
“Why do all good things have to come to an end?” This refrain accompanies the audience through 80 minutes full of gentle confrontation. Sitting in the front row next to the stage, the spectators are right up close when the actors are called for by their playing partners in the role of Death: “It’s time.” Already? The audience’s phones play a key role in this confrontation with mortality. Questions appear on the screen: “Would you be ok with someone reading all your messages after your death?” Type in the answer! Who knows us best? Our family? Our friends? Our phone? And who will join us in the family grave if family no longer has anything to do with biological kinship?
‘FLAMES TO DUST’ plays out both on stage and through introspection. Those present are alone with themselves and their phones – and yet they are well taken care of in this setting, which is warm and nimble for all the weight of its subject. We are all going to die. And that gives us all something in common.
reviews
cast
Concept, Text, Performance: Henrike Iglesias (Anna Fries, Eva G. Alonso, Malu Peeters, Marielle Schavan, Sophia Schroth), Coding, Creative Technology: bleeptrack, Costumes: Mascha Mihoa Bischoff, Assistant Director, voice performance: María Giacaman, Costume Assistant: Marie Göhler, Ceramics: Lauriane Daphne Carl, Outside Eye: Olivia Hyunsin Kim, Production Management Germany: ehrliche arbeit – freies Kulturbüro, Production Management Switzerland: Maxine Devaud, oh la la – performing arts production, Translation: Naomi Boyce
credits
A Henrike Iglesias production in co-production with Sophiensæle, Berlin, FFT Düsseldorf, brut Wien and ROXY Birsfelden. Funded by the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe, the Fonds Darstellende Künste with funding from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media as part of NEUSTART KULTUR, the expert panel on dance and theatre for the Cantons of Basel-Stadt and Basel-Landschaft and the Schweizerische Interpretenstiftung SIS.