OH FAITH – Eine Zweiflermesse

Can those who don’t believe find heaven? Is there a future religion without God? And where can I find my personal Jesus on the internet? Do we have a doubt-problem? “OH FAITH, WHERE ART THOU?” (WT) is conceived as an agnostic mass, a ritual gathering as immersive musical theatre, with chorales for a community of nonbelievers, sceptics and, of course, believers. Over a period of five weeks, a ritual community will be conceived as a church, a film and a concert and theatre performance for Leipzig, City of Bach. The piece is the passion narrative of a person who has been trying to believe ever since their birth. Do we need a god? Or is our shuddering in the face of the universe’s incomprehensibility enough? “OH FAITH, WHERE ART THOU?” (WT) poses questions – and celebrates the ritual of doubting in a mass for all at Easter.

Together with his team and a choir from Leipzig, the Swiss director, composer, lyricist and multi-media artist Elia Rediger attempts to explore religion and faith from the perspective of a person who feels the gap left by the loss of religion. Led liturgically by Past:or Future, a preacher from past and future, the piece reflects on time and mortality. Accompanied by the polyphony of the choir, this personal search for faith becomes a tentative probing of the innermost soul. How much doubt can we endure? Can we find comfort and reconciliation in this new community?

In his work as director at Deutsche Oper Berlin and Theater Bern, and as founder of the European-African theatre company GROUP50:50 (FAUST-award 2023), Elia Rediger develops shows that combine multi-media performance, opera, film, theatre and visual art and take the multi-media expansion of our reality into account. Elia Rediger has previously been a guest at Residenz with the Leipzig-Berlin band project BRIGADE FUTUR III and with “ECOSYSTEM”, a coproduction with Group50:50.

Following “LUV” (Wiener Festwochen 2025), “OH FAITH, where art thou” (wT) is the second piece by Rediger & int int irrit within a cycle planned over several years. Int int irrit (intentional international irritations) is a production vessel between studio, campaign, company and agency. Their multi-disciplinary projects try to consider the process-like nature of artistic work as an integral element of the production’s content, in order to produce inspiring humanistic irritations through targeted, cross-format actions.