World Premiere: November 21st, 2024, Ballhof Zwei
Sofia is blushing. Of course, she is not the only one. Some people blush when they are ashamed, some don’t show the blush and others are ashamed without blushing.
According to what we know, a human being already starts feeling shame at the age of 18 months. Even before we can say “I”, we seem to notice that we will depend on the judgement and the view of others in what we are for all our lives – and we feel shame.
But what exactly is shame? How does it start? How does it show? How do we deal with it? We are ashamed of small, personal things: our financial situation, our bodies, even our origins. To say nothing of the phenomenon of digital shaming. But there seem to be people who are shameless. However, there are plausible reasons to believe that a society without shame would be better off than one where it plays an important part.
With affection and her very own sense of humour, dancer and choreographer Antje Pfundtner explores the sore spot of shame with her company and her audience and asks: What will come afterwards?
Dates:
Thursday, 21. November 2024, 7:30 pm/ Premiere
Wednesday, 27. November 2024, 6:30 pm
Monday, 2. December 2024, 6:30 pm
Tuesday, 3. December 2024, 11:00 am
Thursday, 12. December 2024, 6:30 pm
Monday, 6. January 2025, 6:30 pm
Monday, 27. January 2025, 6:30 pm
Tickets and further information can be found here.
Director: Antje Pfundtner
With: Fabian Dott, Alrun Hofert, Nils Rovira-Muñoz, Tom Scherer
Stage: Irene Pätzug
Costumes: Yvonne Marcour
Music: Nikolaus Woernle
Dramaturgy: Barbara Kantel, Anne Kersting
Photos
Photos: Kerstin Schomburg
Press
“When is something embarrassing, when do we feel ashamed, and why? And what do we do when something makes us feel uncomfortable and embarrassed? Sink to the floor? Run away, blush, be sad? Running away in the theatre is difficult, so the only thing to do here is to persevere and endure. And it’s worth it. The experiment at Ballhof Zwei is called ‘Der wunde Punkt. A play about shame’ and lasts a highly entertaining hour and a half, bursting with pleasurable embarrassment without being embarrassingly preachy. This is also due to the irrepressible enthusiasm of Fabian Dott, Alrun Hofert, Nils Rovira-Muñoz and Tom Scherer, who introduce themselves into the play right at the beginning with their own first names. (…) Finally, everyone in the audience is asked to shout their own name out loud. An ‘I Love’ was intoned beforehand, followed by the cacophony of first names. Collective embarrassment could hardly be staged in a more brilliant, spiteful and at the same time philanthropic way.” Frank Kurzhals/ HAZ
“It is the enlightened, reflective retrospectives on shameful moments that open up the subject in a multi-layered way. (…) The ensemble infects the audience with its lightness of being and makes dealing with the heavy burdens of shame seem to float. This makes them impressively negotiable.” Jens Fischer/ Taz