description
In Together Forever, Jeremy Wade, Liz Rosenfeld, Michiel Keuper, Igor Koruga and Jared Gradinger experimented with caring situations and forms of tender complicity. This piece set out to probe the social and political implications of community, love and affection. What is it that we can only do together – what can’t we do alone? What does being there for someone mean? What does a positive form of dependency look like? And what might forms of togetherness look like in the future?
This Berliner super collaboration took the hackneyed but ever-hopeful promise of eternal love into focus. The show was not on the romantic love relationships between couples: instead, it is an attempt to explore gentle forms of closeness beyond coupledom. In a celebratory, political ritual / rite of passage, “Together forever” takes a look at our reliance on, and responsibility to one another. The performers take on the role of affectionate mediators with the audience during the show. They lead them through touchingly challenging situations, laying a shared table and trying out various forms of complicity.
Is it possible to challenge the status quo with physical encounters that rely on thoughtful cooperation? Real and imagined stories of togetherness and visions of intimate communities are narrated, explored and ritually considered here – concretely as a tangible creation of the here-and-now of the performance. But also as a model that has political and social implications: Do we – or don’t we – want to live in a world in which our fundamental needs are regarded not just as individual and personal, but also as a social issue?
This Berliner super collaboration took the hackneyed but ever-hopeful promise of eternal love into focus. The show was not on the romantic love relationships between couples: instead, it is an attempt to explore gentle forms of closeness beyond coupledom. In a celebratory, political ritual / rite of passage, “Together forever” takes a look at our reliance on, and responsibility to one another. The performers take on the role of affectionate mediators with the audience during the show. They lead them through touchingly challenging situations, laying a shared table and trying out various forms of complicity.
Is it possible to challenge the status quo with physical encounters that rely on thoughtful cooperation? Real and imagined stories of togetherness and visions of intimate communities are narrated, explored and ritually considered here – concretely as a tangible creation of the here-and-now of the performance. But also as a model that has political and social implications: Do we – or don’t we – want to live in a world in which our fundamental needs are regarded not just as individual and personal, but also as a social issue?
credits
By and with
Jeremy Wade, Liz Rosenfeld, Michiel Keuper, Igor Koruga, Jared Gradinger
video
thanks, production, support
Production and press: björn & björn
Production: Jeremy Wade
Coproduction: HAU Hebbel on the shore
Supported by the Capital Culture Fund
Jeremy Wade would like to thank Eike Wittrock, Stuart Meyers, Moritz Sauer. Thank you to all the wonderful people who came to our open rehearsals, we could not have made this thing without you. This piece is deeply inspired by the work Wade did with Kai Ehrhardt and Volker Moritz. He is grateful for their generosity and openness. For more information visit the Somatic Akademie, Berlin.