EINDHOVEN - The Philipszaal of the Parktheater has been transformed into a forest in the performance 'ATMEN'. It will be shown three times in Eindhoven during the Nieuwe Maan festival. A vision of a world after the collapse of current civilization.
"What would happen if we suddenly weren't here anymore," says Nicole Beutler, choreographer and theater maker about the performance Atmen. It is the second part of a triology titled Rituals of Transformation. Animals, plants, fungi, and microorganisms have taken over the earth from humans. The planet can finally breathe again.
"In essence, the performance offers a positive vision of the future, in which the earth recovers," Beutler continues. "One of the sources for Atmen is the book The World Without Us by Alan Weisman. It's a thought experiment. It's not likely to happen, but it does open up a horizon."
Metal refinement
Beutler came up with the idea for this triology because her daughter told her five years ago that she wanted to become a grandmother. "That's at least sixty years away. I started to wonder what the world would look like then. If you follow the news with all those doomsday scenarios, you become overwhelmed by helplessness. With the possibilities I have, I wanted to focus on that theme, but to think beyond the fear. It's a future vision in three phases, based on the process that alchemy works with, a refinement of metals into gold in three steps."
The first part, GINKGO, represented the black phase, the end of the world due to overproduction, causing humans to drown in their own waste. The material used in this performance was largely found on the streets by Beutler's company. The second phase, ATMEN, is mercury. "It's a moonlit night. Everything is bathed in a silver glow, everything is fluid and in motion. The theater has been taken over by nature. People emerge from the shadows. They form a new community that adapts to this reality and becomes part of the environment."
Networks of fungi
Beutler creates this environment with set pieces on stage and in the auditorium, and a projection by video artist Heleen Blanken, who works at the intersection of nature and technology. In it, organic forms move, and you see the growth of root systems and networks of fungi and mycelium. The atmosphere in the auditorium is enhanced by music. In addition to a live performance of Franz Schubert's song Das Gesang der Geister über dem Wasser, there is an electronic composition by Gary Shepherd. Because the set extends into the auditorium, the audience is physically part of this vision.
I want to think beyond the fear in this vision of the future
Nicole Beutler, Theater maker
Beutler experimented with the stage design at the opera in Antwerp. The auditorium had to look like it had been empty for a century and a half. "That was based on a visit to the Bialowiezabos in the far east of Poland, the last European primeval forest. There you learn how trees that we declare dead still have forty years of life left, until they gradually fall, decay, and are transformed by bugs. After Antwerp, we worked for a week at the Parktheater. There we looked at how the performers can move in the set. Where do people hang out? Are there places where they can make fire?"
Overgrown
The audience enters an overgrown space. In the darkness, the environment slowly reveals itself. "That experience of time, in which the audience is immersed, is central. It's a journey through time, in which they detach from the here and now. I don't impose any rules on them. It's essential to realize that we are part of this whole. I want to use the theater as one of the last places where we can reflect as a group on important topics, such as the future of humanity."
'Atmen' by Nicole Beutler Projects. Parktheater Eindhoven. Sat January 13, 9:30 PM. Sun January 14, 4:00 PM and 7:00 PM. Info: nicolebeutlerprojects.nl/voorstelling/atmen