Oscar Wilde's novel character Dorian Gray makes a Faustian pact: an enchanted portrait ages in place of himself, revealing the traces of his sinful missteps. While Gray becomes increasingly immoderate, vulgar and cruel, his exterior remains young and flawless.
In the new work by the performance collective Gob Squad, the stage becomes a utopian space. All the performers* share the experience of a life in the spotlight with their bodies as capital, on public display and view. But here they have the opportunity to try on and paint over each other's lives, experiences and identities. A group of senior citizens is magically transformed into a group of teenagers - picture frames, canvases and mirrored walls are set in motion again and again and arranged in such a way that ever new, surprising images, portraits and perspectives emerge. Gob Squad stages the theme of seeing and being seen under the voyeuristic gaze of the audience. Who has control over whom? Who manipulates and cares for whom? And what does it mean to lose control over oneself and one's body?
Gob Squad! For the third time in Wiesbaden. After the extravagant version of Tolstoy's "War and Peace" at the last WIESBADEN BIENNALE and "Western Society" at the Maifestspiele, the British-German peformance collective is coming to the spa town again in 2018!
Text source and more information about this event: http://www.staatstheater-wiesbaden.de/programm/spielplan/2018-08/creation/4731/
