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rebekka bangerter   

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Mutterzungen

What is lost when a language disappears?
Co-production with Gessnerallee Zurich and Frascati Theater Amsterdam | Premiere May 2026 

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What is lost when a language disappears? An intimate, poetic encounter between three speakers of endangered languages in the dark.

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What makes language alive—and where does understanding begin? 

A linguist who speaks Bamum-Shüpamom, an author who speaks Romansh, and a language activist who speaks Sorbian come together in a space filled with cushions, voices and memories. Fluidly switching between different languages, translations, and the untranslatable, they reflect together on loss and legacy, on language as a form of resistance and a space of possibility. 

The audience lies in the middle of this conversation, similar to a sleepover, where language appears not as a pure means of communication, but as sound, relationship, and lived practice. Mindful listening beyond linguistic understanding becomes a shared experience.

A theater evening that emerges in the spaces between translations. In various spoken languages. Without surtitles.

Concept, Artistic Direction: Rebekka Bangerter

Artistic Collaboration & Performance: Asa Hendry, Solange P. Molu, Felicia Touvenot

Text: Asa Hendry, Solange P. Molu, Felicia Touvenot, Rebekka Bangerter

Dramaturgy: Hayat Erdoğan / Henriette Festerling

Scenography & Costumes: Franca Manz

Sound Design & Composition: Dominic Röthlisberger

Lighting Design & Technical Direction: Lukas Sander

Graphic Design: Matthias Nüesch

Consultant & Artistic Collaboration on Audio Description: Lenthe Basant

Audio Description Collaboration & Voice: Julia Skof

Production: Rebekka Bangerter / Asa Hendry

Interviews & Voices: Madlenka Šołćic, Marija Šołćic, Regina Šołćic, Gianna Olinda Cadonau, Paul Caduff, Werner Carigiet and others

Co-produced with: Gessnerallee and Frascati Producties

With heartfelt thanks to:

Übersetzerhaus Looren, HIGA! Gasteiz, YEN, Juliana Matthew, Mariona Miret, Nina Postma, Quadriye Yildiz, Amin El-Didi, Anna Feliu, Bharathi Mayandi Franaszek, Denise Ledermann, Hevin Karakurt, Julia Büsser, Ulysse Berdat, Viktoria Mytsyk

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HORROR VACUI

- a live typed performance in collaboration with an AI

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DAS Theatre, Amsterdam I Theater Monty, Antwerp

2023

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The curtain opens. A cursor is blinking on an empty screen. Only the clicking of the keyboard is breaking the silence as we embark on a sensual walk through the forest.

Rebekka is writing a performance, exploring the power of language and the politicallity of authorship and creativity. But while she is still typing and thinking, text generating AI’s have found their way into our everyday use, creating much more text than her - in much less time. Producing text has become posthuman.

What does it mean to create in a time of constant technological updates? Can we still allow ourselves to get lost? To read between the lines and slow down?

Inspired by techno-feminist perspectives and writing strategies, horror vacui invites you on a humorous, poetic and critical journey on the entanglement of human, text, machine - from female typewriters to disembodied AI’s. What reality do we write with the tools we create? Who is writing? - And who keeps doing the work in the background?

An evening between edited and deleted thoughts, dominating datasets, collective imagination and our own bodily presence.

 

 

Premiere October 2023, Theater Monty Antwerp

Research Phase: DAS Theatre, 2022 / 2023

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Concept / Text / Performance: Rebekka Bangerter

Dramaturgy: Henriette Festerling

Scenography and light design: Hendrik Walther

Mentoring: Joachim Robbrecht

Eye Exterior: Emke Idema

Costume Advice: Daphne De Winkel

Consulting Isadora: Chun Shing Au / Jimmy Grima

Technical Support: Durante Van Kuijk

With special thanks to Edit Kaldor
 

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© rebekka bangerter

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