Cut the Rope. A Ritual

Goodbyes. The small ones, the big ones. Those that are handled with ease and familiarity, and those that are dreaded and far too overwhelming. Goodbyes that take time – often more than seems to be available. What are we mistakenly saying goodbye to, and what do we want to say goodbye to? What must we finally say goodbye to, because it has been withheld from us or taken away for far too long? Who and what deserves a beautiful, dignified, solemn farewell and will therefore receive it this evening? Who and what has been here far too long and has never had constructive, joyful, equal coexistence in mind, but only ever misanthropy?

Cut the Rope practises the art of saying goodbye, one that can and must be practised and learnt, because it is a necessary act, a useful tool. Things that must come to an end are brought to an end. The threads and ropes of all the actions and structures that are deadly are severed. We celebrate those who, far too often and for far too long, have been forgotten and deserve to be properly mourned. We begin with ending.

For the production “Cut the Rope”, the collectives FARN, George Bele, and Bodenproben have joined forces to practise saying goodbye together: the performance collective “FARN”, comprising Moritz Bossmann, Nadja Sofie Eller, Sandra Hüller, Tom Schneider, and Aline Bucher, views theatre as a collective practice of thought and action. Within the collective, there are no fixed structures or hierarchies, no certainties or truths one could or would rely on. “George Bele” brings together the actress Charlotte Puder and the writer Heike Geißler. Among other things, they developed intervention formats in and for shop windows and a play (“Göttinnen oder: Die Arbeit am Wetter von morgen”, world premiere at Residenz Leipzig). They understand the name George Bele as a fictional yet imaginatively present figure capable of taking on a life of its own, reminding us that artistic work can generate a specific form of life. In “Bodenproben” (Soil Samples), Uwe Gössel explores the foundations of life through artistic projects. In various constellations, the most diverse “soils” are tested: the physical, the ideological, the social, and the future.