Everyone wants community. But the euphoria has completely disappeared two years after moving into the housing project.
The rain is getting heavier – but we still play. After we were unable to perform the play due to the pandemic, we brave the rain – rather, our brave audience does. The local Kultursommer, summer of culture, team supports us wonderfully. In the end we will have played the rain away.
We have further developed our forum theatre play ‘Caring for Communities’ and woven insights from the field study between the residents’ introductions. In addition, a young person who is involved in Fridays for Future has now moved in and the rainbow flag hung up by a resident keeps disappearing without a trace.
It is a mess. Everyone has imagined communal life in the house differently. No one is able to take a step towards the others: The house meeting escalates and one resident declares in frustration: »Our life together has failed!«
Now it’s up to the audience: Who has ideas for interventions? Who would like to suggest something to mitigate or even resolve the conflicts? Some of the ideas: An older lady should mediate between youth and adults. External mediation could help. A joint party could loosen up the situation again. All these suggestions are tried out live on stage. Some with the desired effect, some unsuccessfully.
Forum theatre is a protected space to try things out – to practise for reality and to learn: What does the audience, some of whom travelled from Krems, take away? It’s worth trying out new ways to mitigate or even resolve deadlocked situations and conflicts. Even if you fail, you have learned something.
Theatre Ensemble
Magoa Hanke – Moderation & Jokering
Katharina Fischer – Clara Krüger & Frido van Veen
Beatrice Stude – Findings from Field Study
Hannes Reitberger – Bertram Hochstammer & Georg Gießner
Maria Oberleitner – Ms. Haas & Tanja Kämpfer
Erica Ras – Anabell van Veen
Veronika Vitovec – Ms. Schmidt
Background
A play by Magoa Hanke (theatre maker), Beatrice Stude (urban planner) and Veronika Vitovec (theatre pedagogue). The Forum Theatre is part of the project ‘Caring for Communities’ by Action Archive + Beatrice Stude and was developed for the exhibition Critical Care: Architecture and Urbanism for a Broken Planet (2019-2020). It is based on the field study ‘Caring for Communities’, book copies of which were distributed free of charge after the performance.
More information
- Sommer of culture – announcement German
- Caring for Communities – shaping life together – announcement German
- Caring for Communities – German