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dramaturgy
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Krampus: Fur and Icing Sugar




As part of a piece development, "Krampus: Fur and Icing Sugar" deals with the often mystified custom that is deeply inscribed in Alpine society. The great ensemble of five extraordinarily different actresses whirls old and new traditions across the Gorki Container, plays mini golf, sheds light on trauma and dances in waltz time on a map of Austria without allowing themselves to be limited by identity constructs.
Every year in December, demonic figures dressed in fur coats, carved masks and devil's horns appear in the Alpine region to drive out evil from the powdered sugar-dusted Alpine scenery with rattling chains. Krampus appears in a variety of ways: as a traditional mask, as a punishing companion of St. Nicholas and sometimes as a chocolate figure with a broad, devilish grin. Sedlak and the ensemble expose traditions of discipline and dualistic concepts, choreographing a change of perspective to unmask social structures full of suppressed emotions and hidden abysses.
There is hope that the identity debate will not be quite so bitter and polarized in the future. (...) Traditionally, Krampus is played by men. In Gorki's version, he is played by women, one of whom is black and none of them has a German-sounding name. Perhaps one day we will no longer ask ourselves what Krampus was "really" like - but see traditions for what they are: acted out. A reenactment of events that no one knows how exactly they happened or whether they even happened.
Susanne Kaiser
Zeit Online
Press
"(...) what it means when you have the chance to let out all the things that have been slumbering inside you for the rest of the year. We dealt with the apparent promise that peace and contentment await you. In this context, we also talked a lot about emotions, especially suppressed emotions. Much more than about actual experiences with Krampus. That was actually just the beginning."
"It always depends on who is behind the mask, who appropriates these mythical figures and for what purpose they are used and performed."
Text Isabella Sedlak & Ensemble
Directed by Isabella Sedlak
with
Maryam Abu Khaled
Yanina Cerón
Anastasia Gubareva
Orit Nahmias
Vidina Popov
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Stage Christine Ruynat
Choreography Therese Nübling
Costume Franziska Müller
Music Cansu Tanrıkulu, Korhan Erel
Dramaturgy Sandra Wolf
Assistant Director Juliane Aixner
Scene Photos Ute Langkafel, Lutz Knospe
A production of the Maxim Gorki Theater, Berlin
Credits