She herself calls her theatre "enchanted philosophizing." To sense phenomena and materials of our time, to research, investigate and question them, and then – with all artistic means – put them on stage. That is the theatre practice of the Chilean author, director, and musician Manuela Infante.
She has dealt, for example, with the raw material oil (Black Flame, Volkstheater Vienna) or developed an evening about plants and what we can learn from them (Estado Vegetal, Berlin (Estado Vegetal, Berliner Festspiele / Venice Biennale). Or she questioned why, especially in western thinking, it always must be about the end (which lies in the future) instead of the now (Wie alles endet, Theater Basel). At the Schauspielhaus Bochum, in her previous work Noise. Das Rauschen der Menge with acoustic phenomena of political unrest and protest movements. For her new work at the Kammerspiele she has taken on the subject of hair.
Manuela Infante is one of the most exciting contemporary theatre makers. In her productions – which cause a sensation internationally – she finds a language of her own language that is special in the German-speaking theatre landscape.
Now and then she adds the word "essay" to the title of the piece: With this she refers in the beautiful literary form of a personal argument making it an explicitly socio-political topic. What heavy(-swaying) sounds, ultimately comes across as fine with her as humorous, playful and musical and in sensual images on the stage.
- Verflechtungen. Das Leben der Haare
- von Manuela Infante
- Translation by Gianluca Elbert
- Direction: Manuela Infante
- With: William Cooper, Gina Haller, Veronika Nickl, Abenaa Prempeh, Jing Xiang, Lukas von der Lühe
- Place: Kammerspiele
- Premiere: 05.06.2024
- Direction: Manuela Infante
- Direction: Manuela Infante
- Stage design: Rocío Hernández Marchant
- Costume design: Lara Suppe
- Light design: Rocío Hernández Marchant, Johannes Zotz
- Sound design: Manuela Infante
- Sound engineering: Nikolas Dolle
- Dramaturgy: Dorothea Neweling, Camila Valladares Farrú
- Assistant director: Lynn Dokoohaki
- Assistant Stage Designer: Anita Ackva
- Assistant Costume Designer: Zoe Maria Böck
- Prompter: Jutta Schneider
- Stage Manager: Jonas Kissel
- Supertitle Manager: Leonie Mevissen / Gianluca Elbert