*** Content Warning: This staging contains violent language (sexism, misogyny, rape, sexual violence) and live sex. The description of rape can have a potentially retraumatising effect. ***
Please note: The performance is only accessible for ages 18 and up. No photos are allowed to be taken, You can leave the performance at any time.
David Foster Wallace's language in Kurze Interviews mit fiesen Männern (Brief Interviews with Hideous Men) sets the stage for live sex and mindfuck, and thereby encounters a hard core question: how far can hideous men, can toxic masculinity go? Wallace locates dehumanisation, humanity's greatest tragedy, in the private sphere where no one sees it. The painful experiences go deep. Cemented by shame, there is no language capable of overcoming them. Yana Ross's production dares to challenge catharsis with grotesque means.
"Yana Ross has managed actor's theater at its smartest. She has turned what was lightly prescribed as a blood and testicles theater foreboding scandal into a lesson in humanity." (Aargauer Zeitung, 9/13/2021)
"Rarely has theater been so disturbing - and thus so powerful. You feel caught, ask yourself: what to do? Look or look away?" (NZZ am Sonntag, 9/12/2021)
"The change of perspective provides insight: porn is suddenly a means of self-reflection instead of jaded consumption. That's pretty visionary. And suddenly things start to get really interesting." (NZZ am Sonntag, 9/12/2021)
"The interplay between classical actors and the porn actors goes like clockwork. After only fifteen minutes, Katie Pears makes her first appearance - with lines! If she resembles with her smoothly ironed hair and tattoos completely the cliché of an erotic actress, her presence, the clear voice and total self-confidence surprise." (Blick, 9/13/2021)
"Yana Ross has managed actor's theater of the smartest. Lena Schwarz as the moderator sits there with her legs as wide as only men can and rubs herself lustfully against everything she can find: from the balcony parapet to the giant bison standing right next to her in this cowboy Wild West environment. She is the rutting creature while the gentlemen sit next to her like softie decals. You can't debunk gender stereotypes any more grandly." (nachtkritik, 9/11/2021)
"And it's fun when the wannabe machos perform as volk musicians, Michael Neuenschwander plucks the double bass, they perform a country song about loneliness or a yodel to the desire of a mens heart." (Tages Anzeiger, 9/13/2021)
"Ross’ Kostümbildnerin Zane Philstrom hat die Männer in pastellfarbige Cowboykostüme – rosa und helltürkis! – mit riesigen Hüten und überspitze Stiefel gesteckt: Sie sind die lächerlichsten Parodien des Western-Mythos, die man sich vorstellen kann." (Badische Zeitung, 09/12/2021)
"When the male sense of mission ferments and rots tarnished, it apparently produces toxic language far more offensive than the bit of live sex on stage." (NZZ, 9/13/2021)
