ALICE IN WONDERLAND – A performance through a department store

A performance threw a department store

Initially, Alice quickly only wanted to do some shopping. But suddenly she is lost in the glittering wonderland of consumption – a world of everyday necessities, but also of affl uence and promises. Who am I? What do I need? What can I afford?

Alice experiences an adventurous and sometimes disturbing voyage through the world of consumer society.

In small groups the audience is led by Alice through this old-established Berlin department store. Passing sleeping shop dummies in the storerooms for decorations you are entering the hurly-burly of shopping, the department store turns into a stage, the consumer turns into an inhabitant of the wonderland. The caterpillar, as expert for women‘s outer garments, advises Alice in questions of style and identity, while the queen controls the destiny of her employees. Narrative stops increasingly distort the ordinary world of shopping – but what can be regarded as ordinary in a world where everything seems to been available at all times?

With inscrutable sense of humour and unerring instinct for the absurd of everyday life, MS Schrittmacher dissects our consumer habits formed by desire and mania in this performance leading to the final question: Was it really just a mysterious dream?

Premiere 28.03. 2012 at Karstadt am Hermann Platz, Berlin.
Reopening 01.08. 2013 at Forum Steglitz, Berlin.

 IN THE MEDIA 

„Here, Lewis Carroll’s 19th-century favourite has been given a postmodern, 21st-century makeover. Alice is now a frazzled 40-something with lanky blonde-brown hair and her Wonderland is a consumer hell: Dante’s Inferno meets Are You Being Served?. Alice is no longer a witness in a trial, as in Carroll’s original, but is bombarded with one decision after another: Do you have a customer card? Do you collect loyalty points? Three for the price of two? Vouchers? Free delivery? Fairtrade? VAT refund? Our heroine fl ees down the escalator and the great show ends as suddenly as it began.“ ( Derek Scally, Irish times)

 TEAM 

Choreography, directing, concept: Martin Stiefermann
Artistic collaboration: Efrat Stempler
Text: Hartmut Schrewe
Music: Sir Henry
Costume design: Lorraine Göhring
Production management: Matthias Püschner
Business manager: Eberhard Wagner
Press: k3berlin
Assistance: Katharina Meyer

Dancers, actors: Antje Rose, Effi Rabsilber, Angelika Thiele, Gunnar Blume, Armin Dallapiccola, Jorge Morro, Nicky Vanoppen und Jessica Kammerer – Georg, Karla Mendoza, Leonie Pfitzer, Inga Klemme

Sponsored by the Regierenden Bürgermeister von Berlin and the Fond Darstellende Künste
Coproduced by Karstadt, Forum Steglitz and DOCK 11, EDEN*****
Supported by DINAMIX, Huggendubel

 VIDEO