Città del Vaticano

As part of the Wiener Festwochen.

How do religion and the Church shape the way we live? To what extent have we emancipated ourselves from the values handed down over centuries by the Vatican in our concepts of society, family, and relationships? Do we even want to? What could a family look like in 2015? How can terms like origin, homeland, or home be redefined in a globalized world? What kinds of relationships define us? What does it mean to be a man or a woman today?

As part of Città del Vaticano, a group consisting of ensemble members from Schauspielhaus and young performers—whom author and director Falk Richter and choreographer Nir de Volff met during two intensive workshop phases at the Biennale di Venezia—begins a deep exploration of questions surrounding belonging, identity, and cultural heritage.

The ensemble represents a young generation of Europeans questioning their own roots within a tradition shaped by Christianity. They speak personally about themselves, their lives, and their stories, reflecting on their experiences: What was my parents’ marriage like? What kind of ideas about relationships did they pass on to me? What kinds of relationships do I live today? How do my different cultural backgrounds shape my daily life? What does religion mean to me? What does Europe mean—does it offer a sense of identity? How do I define my home? What kind of man, what kind of woman am I, and how does that clash with the dominant societal expectations—still heavily influenced by the Church?

Text and movement meet. What stories are written into the performers’ individual bodies? What does the body reveal about lived experience? How have male and female bodies learned to move in public and private spaces?

Working at the intersection of genres and investigating the interplay between artistic disciplines characterizes the collaboration between Falk Richter and Nir de Volff—as does their intensive engagement with the performers’ biographies, which enter the productions alongside impulses from sociology and philosophy.

For Città del Vaticano, they develop an experimental process rooted in improvisation and continuously evolving as a “work in progress.” The focus is on the personalities, stories, and desires of the performers and their reflections on religion, culture, and identity.