The theatre is the place of realisation, presence and liveness. Every happening on the stage is permeated with vitality. The audience can assure itself second after second: These bodies on stage are there for me, this voice is speaking to me – now, in this moment. But what happens to theatre when human presence is no longer a given and disappears for a performance? What remains then? The Malaysia Airlines international passenger plane MH370 suddenly disappeared from radar on March 8 2014 with 227 passengers and 12 crew members. Its disappearance has been called one of the greatest aviation mysteries of all time – because it seems unbelievable that something so big could be lost in a world where presumably everything and everyone is under surveillance. Shortly after the plane disappeared, the father of the author and director writes four birthday letters to his grandson. The contents are almost identical; each envelope bearing a special issue stamp. A year later, no card arrives at all, the birthday was probably forgotten, and at some point, this forgetfulness gets a name and becomes a disease: dementia. In “All right. Good night.”, Helgard Haug charts the disappearance, the search and the struggle with uncertainty – using the example of the missing plane and the manifestation of dementia in her own father. It is the protocol of an irreversible process.
As an artistic medium, music has a grand tradition of making tangible what has disappeared. Be it through a requiem in memory of the deceased or through a choir, which back in ancient theatre testified as a chronicler, reporting on barely conceivable battles and divine providence. For “All right. Good night.”, the electro-pop musician Barbara Morgenstern has composed for the first time for a classical orchestra in collaboration with arranger Davor Vincze.
What remains? Only thoughts and memories? The naked theatre apparatus? The music?
“All right. Good night.” was invited to the 2022 Theatertreffen and voted “Inszenierung des Jahres” by Theater Heute.
Barbara Morgenstern is an electronic musician, composer, producer and choir director. In 1998, she began a serious of releases on Berlin label Monika Enterprise, and her most recent album came out in 2018 via Staatsakt. Since 2007, she has been directing the Chor der Kulturen der Welt at Berlin’s HKW (House of World Cultures), for which she also composes, arranges and selects the programme. She has been working with Rimini Protokoll consistently since 2012.
Zafraan Ensemble represent music that reflects today’s life, today’s society, today's reality in all possible facets. Through interaction with other art forms, Zafraan observe, explore and process all that surrounds us: people, events, nature and technology, with all the accompanying normalities and absurdities. Formed in Berlin in 2009 and consisting of ten permanent members from Spain, France, New Zealand, Australia and Germany, the group performs a mostly contemporary repertoire with violin, viola, cello, bass, flute, clarinet, saxophone, harp, piano and percussion.
