The age-open perfOrmance "O (the shOw)" takes everyone aged 6 and over into the imaginative world of letters, words and their meanings. Based on the FOrm O, Jan Kress, Julia Keren Turbahn and Jan ROzman test the limits of our cOmmunicatiOn together with the audience and show in a playful way how flexible our language can be.
Jan Kress, Julia Keren Turbahn and Jan Rozman have been working together since 2021 and founded the group baff in 2024. The word baff is an idiom of German Sign Language (DGS) and stands for something unexpected and surprising. baff develops dance performances for an age-open audience. With its productions such as "Dinge dingen" and "O (die shOw)", baff aims to treat the culture of deaf* and hearing people equally both on stage and behind the scenes, to combine their different aesthetics in an innovative way and to make DGS tangible for everyone.
Deaf* includes different identities and life realities such as deaf, hard of hearing, CI-wearing and later deaf.
Follow-up workshop after the performance on 7 May at 10 am
CONCEPT, CHOREOGRAPHY, PERFORMANCE: Jan Kress, Jan ROzman, Julia Keren Turbahn
STAGE DESIGN: Dan PikalO, Jan ROzman
LIGHTING DESIGN: Annegret Schalke
COSTUME DESIGN: Tanja Padan, Kiss the Future
SOUND DESIGN: Tim Schwerdter
O-SONG VOCALS, TEXT: Erik Leuthäuser
OUTSIDE EYE: Rachell BO Clark, Eyk Kauly
ILLUSTRATION, GRAPHIC DESIGN: Matija Medved
THEATRE PEDAGOGICAL SUPPORT: CharlOtte Bartesch, Julia Keren Turbahn
PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT: Alexander SchrÖder, Julia Keren Turbahn
HOSPITANCE: Lynn Dambacher
Special thanks to Caterina Macht, Neely de JOng, COra Tischmann, Ziv Frenkel, Rachell BO Clark, JOhanna Benz, Ana Malalan and the entire FELD team, as well as the 3rd grade of the Ernst-AdOlf-Eschke-Schule and the RObben class of the ROsa-Parks-Grundschule.
A production by Julia Keren Turbahn in co-production with FELD Centre for Young Performance. Funded by the Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion of the State of Berlin as part of the IMPACT programme. With the support of SKICA Berlin, Slovenian Cultural Centre Berlin.
With a combination of language, movement, sign language and direct participation, the performance invites people aged six and over to embark on a journey into the world of letters, words and meanings. At the centre is the seemingly simple sign ‘O’ - and yet the performers Jan Kress, Julia Keren Turbahn and Jan Rozman succeed in filling this circle with life and a variety of meanings.
‘O (die ShOw)’ succeeds in stimulating the young audience's imagination and at the same time integrating them as an active part of the stage action. Through participatory games, the children are invited to take on the role of researchers themselves, investigating the building blocks of language together with the artists: What are letters made of? How are words formed? How do they change through movement and expression?
The inclusion of sign language, which is an essential building block of the story, is particularly noteworthy. The play shows how differently communication and understanding can work. The playful mediation of complex relationships and the imaginative questioning of communication encourage curiosity about the versatility of language.
With this performance, the "O (die shOw)" team succeeds in creating a special, almost magical atmosphere that impresses the audience and opens up a new, creative view of the possibilities of language - and not just through speaking.
Mariella Pierza
Notes on sensory stimuli: At certain points in the piece there are rapid changes of light and fog. There is also loud, intense bass in the music in places. This makes the music perceptible to the deaf* audience.
Deaf* is a positive self-designation of non-hearing people, regardless of whether they are deaf, partially deaf or hard of hearing.