ABOUT PERFORMANCE
“Hold this book. Heavy isn’t it? Actually that’s only half of it. It’s one of the longest in the world. It has 1256 pages (depending on the edition and language you are reading in), originally written in four volumes, there’s more than 135 characters. Have you actually read it?...I’m only half way through.”
Gob Squad members work collaboratively on the concept, direction and performance of their work – there are no determined actors and directors. This time, famous European renegades created the historical defile based on Tolstoy`s novel. Lenin, Marilyn Monroe, nowadays politicians and Anna Pavlovna Sherer guests appear on stage. They dance, dine, duel while performers try to reframe main Russian epopee created a century and a half ago. As a result the barrier between art and reality, history and present days, stage and the audience vanishes.
Founded in 1994, Gob Squad are a group of UK and German artists. They make performances and videos which search for beauty in the everyday, and look for words of wisdom from a passing stranger. An artists collective with seven core members, they work collaboratively on the concept, direction and performance of their work. They explore the point where theatre meets art, media and real life, constantly searching for new ways to combine media and performance, producing stage shows, Presented with Malthouse Theatre video installations, radio plays, interactive live films and urban interventions.
In English with Russian simultaneous translation
Duration: approx. 1 hour 45 minutes
Age limit 18+
World Premiere: 23rd March 2016, Münchner Kammerspiele
Gob Squad is regularly funded (2015 - 2018) by the State Berlin, Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa.
War and Peace is a production by Gob Squad and Münchner Kammerspiele. Incoproduction with Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg- Platz Berlin, Schauspiel Leipzig, Konfrontacje Teatralne Festival Lublin, Lancaster Arts at Lancaster University, Malthouse Theatre and Melbourne Festival, Gessnerallee Zürich, Nottingham Playhouse and Teatro Stabile di Torino – National Theatre.
www.gobsquad.com
www.gobsquad.com/faq
Photos © David Baltzer
TEAM
- Idea and realisation — Gob Squad
- Sound Design — Jeff McGrory
- Video Design — Miles Chalcraft, (Anna Zett)
- Set Design — Romy Kießling
- Costume Design — Ingken Benesch
- Lighting Design — Andreas Rehfeld, Chris Umney
- Dramaturgy — Johanna Höhmann, Christina Runge
- Production Management — Christina Runge
- Technical Management — Chris Umney, Max Wegner
- Artistic Assistant — Mat Hand, Lena Mody
- Assistants from Münchner Kammerspiele — Thorben Meißner, Aleksandra Pavlovic, Yana Thönnes
- Trainees — Katharina Joy Book, Lisa Käppler, Nora Strömer, Aleksandra Jakubczak, Tom Healey, Teresa Heiß, Hannah Wolf
- Gob Squad Management — Eva Hartmann
- Gob Squad Management UK — Ayla Suveren
- Tour Management — Mat Hand
Actors
- Devised and performed by Niels Bormann, Katja Bürkle, Johanna Freiburg, Sean Patten, Damian Rebgetz, Tatiana Saphir, Sharon Smith, Berit Stumpf, Sarah Thom, Laura Tonke, Bastian Trost and Simon Will
- Cast in Moscow — Sean Patten, Sharon Smith, Bastian Trost, Simon Will
20 october 20:00
21 october 20:00
The Meyerhold Theatre Center
st. metro Novoslobodskaya or Mendeleevskaya / Новослободская ул., 23