Kindheiten

In many affluent societies, including Germany, children are increasingly becoming a minority. What does it mean to be a child in a society that is growing ever older? How do children view the world we are leaving them? What do they wish for? And how do we listen to them without immediately interpreting, correcting, or standardising their views? In their work, the collective vorschlag:hammer draws on biographical interviews with children from Leipzig, Zurich, Duisburg, and Berlin to create a polyphonic production about childhood(s) in the year 2025. The children talk about themselves, their observations, longings, and contradictions – sometimes predictable, sometimes surprising, sometimes defiant, and often uncomfortable. The result is an idiosyncratic picture woven from small biographical fragments, which appears as authentic as it is imaginative. With a keen sense for the cracks, fractures, and poetic moments in everyday life, vorschlag:hammer creates a multi-layered panorama of childhoods today – and of play as a form of possibility for jointly exploring the world. An evening that takes the risk of taking children seriously. Not as the future, but now – as a mirror of our present.

Since 2009, vorschlag:hammer has been developing theatre productions as a collective. In recent years, their performative narrative theatre has embraced a wide variety of aesthetic strategies, ranging from visually atmospheric and cinematic works to those focused on the body. In doing so, they freely adapt existing material or develop research-based productions exploring ever-changing themes. Since 2015, vorschlag:hammer has received top-level funding from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. vorschlag:hammer studied cultural studies and aesthetic practice in Hildesheim, as well as acting in Bern and Zurich. The core of vorschlag:hammer, whose members constantly complement one another, consists of Kristofer Gudmundsson, Gesine Hohmann, and Stephan Stock. vorschlag:hammer is part of the cobratheater.cobra network.