Insomnia
BERLINER ENSEMBLE 2023
tekstuddrag #1
What exactly made Iphigenia and Don Juan fall in love was to most people somewhat unclear. Not that they would necessarily say anything aloud, but a why
Why?, would sometimes emerge, unwillingly in the privacy of their own head.
Not a mean “why”
No
just a slight wonder why “why”
What is that all about?
(Can he still get It up?
Or is settling down sort of a response to the failure of the dick)
Do they have anything to talk about?
Not that you have to have something to talk about
(But I mean, what do they actually about talk around the dinner table?)
Despite them being titular characters in major dramatic works in the European Canon of theatre, the similarities seemed to end there.
Don Juan was older
Iphigenia was younger.
Not old
No
and not young
(at least not anymore)
just younger and older.
Don Juan always breadcrumbs in his beard
Whereas Iphigenia was white . Had manicured nails in a non-offensive color
(Boring)
She was a Nice girl with straight hair
He was always late. She was always early. He was East Berlin. She was…well also East Berlin
But a different part
She remembered everything that had ever happened, all the things anyone had ever said.
(that is so many things)
tekstuddrag #2
Chat: What are you doing?
Don Juan: What does it like I am doing?
Chat: It looks like you are an old man, pretending to be less old man by going on a chat roulette, but your lack of any kind grasp of the concept “webcam” pretty much gives it away.
I mean, I can see right up your nose.
Don Juan: You’re funny.
Chat: People always say that.
Don Juan: You don’t think so?
Chat: I think, I am just mean and somehow people tend to
find that funny.
Don Juan: Where are you?
Chat: A Small town in Northern Norway
Don Juan: I love Norway.
Chat: Germans always do.
Don Juan: How did you know I was German?
Chat: Honey you can try, but hiding the age and the
accent will fail.
Don Juan: How old do you think I am?
Chat: Do you really want me to guess?
Don Juan: Maybe not. How old are you?
Chat: How old do you think I am?
Don Juan: 21
Chat: No
Don Juan: 19
Chat: Would it bother you if was younger?
Don Juan: Does it bother you?
Chat: Not right now, but who knows what time
will do to these kinds of memories.
Don Juan: Tell me about your town
Chat: There is not much to say
Don Juan: What is the light like?
Chat: It is going at the moment. Sometime around mid-November the sun will stop rising and doesn’t start again before spring. In the summer the midnight sun comes.
Don Juan: What is that like?
Chat: Like a silly scientist is doing an experiment on all of us. Shining a giant lamp down, just to see if we will act different.
Don Juan: And do you?
Chat: Yeah. For some time all the suicides stop. They come back, when it gets dark. One year it got so bad they had to put a fence on the bridge connecting the two parts of the town just to stop people from jumping of.
Don Juan: I am sorry.
Chat: Don’t be. Every year people say it’s the darkness, but it is also kind of just a shitty place. Nothing to do, nowhere to go, people talking about the same thing using the same words.
Don Juan: But what about the nature?
Chat: What about it?
Don Juan: Isn’t that amazing?
Chat: Sure.
Don Juan: Tell me about the mountains.
Chat: They are mountains. You’ve seen one, you have seen
them all. Honestly, I just really want to leave, can’t stand the
thought of staying here.
Don Juan: Where do you wanna go?
Chat: Where are you?
Don Juan: Berlin.
Chat: I could go Berlin.
Don Juan: Why?
Chat: Because its Berlin.
Don Juan: It stopped being Berlin years ago. It is just ghost town now. People come here to be part of something, but all there is to be part off is a commercialized idea of something that once was.
Chat: Are you sad?
Don Juan: Why do you say that?
Chat: You sudden looked sad
How do you spend your nights? Do you get enough sleep? What do you dream of? Iphigenia can’t sleep. Maybe love, maybe moving to the countryside, growing your vegetables, having a child will help, but where do you find rest in a world always illuminated world?
Insomnia is not show, but not not a show either. An attempt to rest, to be less lonely in the hours we usually spend together.
CREDITS
MEDVIRKENDE Pauline Knof, Paul Grill, William Wittrup Fock,
Anna Jane Utermohl Lund, Óluva Tvørfoss, Heiki Riipinen & Dragongirl
KOREOGRAFI Armin Hokmi
INSTRUKTØR & SCENOGRAF Heiki Riipinen
SCENOGRAFASSISTENT Sara Midtskogen Haave
KOSTUMER Esther Von Der Decken
TEKST Sonja Ferdinand
LYSDESIGN Robert Matysiak
DRAMATURG Johannes Nöelting
MUSIK Dragongirl
FOTO Moritz Hasse