May 20th Sat, 4:30 PM – 5:15 PM | Muzeum moderního umění – Trojlodí
Simone Dede Ayivi and co. THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT
“We want our kids to have better lives,” said our parents and… We claim the same. How did the second and third generation of immigrants grow up and what ideas about “better life” do they have? – One of the most inventive and most “playful” representatives of the current independent German scene invites audiences, armed with headphones and empathy, to the playground of her theatre installation. In German with Czech surtitles.
Ticket price: 190 / 120 Kč
Simone Dede Ayivi manages, thanks to the staging of the space, to grasp childhood memories not nostalgically, but as an impulse to think – even before the first word is spoken. (…)
On the one hand, it invites the audience to think that one is not alone; on the other hand, it heightens the sensitivity of white viewers to fear, anxiety and injuries, which should be perceived not perhaps out of pity but out of solidarity.
Benno Schirrmeister, taz.de, 23 February 2022
Viewers feel like they are in a playground surrounded by screens; they can slowly circle on a merry-go-round or gently sway on a swing. But this comfort zone is soon revealed to be deceptive when the protagonists start talking about Germany in the 1990s, full of racism, when they couldn't sleep by the window for fear of being shot. They talk bluntly about how their parents' fear and distrust of Germans was transferred to themselves; they tell how they fought against shame, exclusion and their own ambition, precisely because their parents wanted them to have better lives. (…) Intimate and affecting.
Theater heute, 8–9/2022
concept Simone Dede Ayivi
video Jones Seitz
scenography Theresa Reiwer
sound and music Katharina Pelosi
light Frieder Miller
production assistant, dramaturgical contribution Selma Böhmelmann
scenography assistant Chris Erlbeck
camera outdoor shots Thomas Machholz
experts Nabila Bushra, Fatma Kar, Lenssa Mohammed, Dan Thy Nguyen, Kadir Özdemir Production management Ehrliche Arbeit – Freies Kulturbüro
technical production Gefährliche Arbeit
A production by Simone Dede Ayivi und Kompliz*innen (Simone Dede Ayivi and her partners in crime) in co-production with SOPHIENSÆLE. Supported by the basic funding of the Berlin Senate Departement for Culture and Europe and by means of the Capital Cultural Fund. Media partner: taz. die tageszeitung.
The guest performance was funded by the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe within the program International Cultural Exchange.
Simone Dede Ayivi (1982) is a director, performer, author and activist, combining all these aspects in her artistic work. She focuses on transgenerational and feminist themes, which she presents to the audience in unusually playful (auto)biographical projects. She has long focused on the life of migrants in Germany and their children who – like her – have already been born there. Through her documentary work, she gives space to voices from marginalised communities while challenging conventional views of reality.
Simone Dede Ayivi graduated in cultural studies and aesthetic practice at the University of Hildesheim. She has published in Zeit Online, Tagesspiegel, taz and Missy Magazin. She is also involved in the Initiative Schwarzer Menschen in Deutschland (ISD). She has worked as a director at the Schauspielhaus Graz and Theater Oberhausen, and with her team has created productions for Sophiensaele, Pavillon Hannover, Künstlerhaus Mousonturm Frankfurt and the Theaterformen festival.
„One thing is always at the centre of Simone Dede Ayivi's productions: solidarity. In different aesthetic environments, she manages to build bridges between people of different backgrounds, ages, genders and always opens a dialogue between them and their community. Research from many perspectives oscillates between individual experiences and normative patterns that need to be broken. Thus, in her productions there is always the possibility of seeing oneself and one's counterpart in a new way and perceive that differently,“ reads the opinion of the jury, which last year awarded Ayivi the most prestigious award in independent theatre in Germany – the George Tabori Award 2022.
Sophiensæle or SOPHIENSÆLE is a space for the creation of independent performing arts. It is housed in a historic building on one of Berlin's oldest streets – the more than 300-year-old Sophienstraße, after which it takes its name.
Here, emerging and established artists from the local and international scene create and perform innovative and experimental works, concepts, styles and formats. The programme includes dance, performance, drama, music theatre and discursive formats. The theatre was founded in 1996 by choreographer Sasha Waltz, cultural entrepreneur Jochen Sandig, dramaturge Zebu Kluth and directors Jo Fabian and Dirk Cieslak. Franziska Werner has been the artistic director since 2011.
Sophiensæle belongs to a network of internationally oriented independent theatres, similar to Kampnagel (Hamburg), Mousonturm (Frankfurt am Main), FFT (Düsseldorf), Theaterhaus Gessnerallee (Zurich) or brut (Vienna). It is also part of the Freischwimmen production platform and one of the locations of the renowned Tanz im August festival. Artists such as Florentina Holzinger, Thorsten Lensing, Milo Rau/IIPM and the art groups Henrike Iglesias, Monster Truck, Turbo Pascal and Interrobang have presented their works here.
………………………
Interview with Simone Dede Ayivi
https://vimeo.com/279837482
Interview with Simone Dede Ayivi about afrofuturism and black-facing
https://www.neuewiener.at/…regisseurin/
photo Mayra Wallraff / Theresa Reiwer / Robin Junicke
