Waltzing with the Pepper Mill: Nicola Hümpel lets "Nico and the Navigators" dance the modernization losers Slim guys with wide ties or oversized shirt collars. They make strange contortions, sometimes dance-like movements, and ask questions like, "Is it too late to start early?" The young men, as well as the women who soon join them, are sad figures. Yet they all look very fashionable. Spread a similar hip atmosphere as people in commercials for Internet services and telecommunications. The blue tones of the clothes are carefully coordinated. Even the obliquely composed red tones of a stuffy women's costume obey the fashionable trash aesthetic that famously defines the collections of Gucci and Prada. But that's how people have to look these days in order not to be seen as modernization losers. And that's what "Eggs on Earth," the new play by "Nico and the Navigators," which has been on view at the Sophiensaele since early June, is all about. "What does it mean to get or lose a job in the budding 21st century?" one asks at the very beginning. And then, over the next hour and a half, we see what that can mean: namely, that seven rather attractive young people are slogging away in rather absurd gestures, always on the edge of the abyss. Or at the foot of the career ladder. Sometimes one carries a Z-shaped chair across the stage to plant it somewhere, sit on it and stare into space. Sometimes a red suitcase is carried through the area. A man grabs a woman's breast, who stoically lets this happen. Later, she grabs a man's pants. Pardon is not given. A man dances a waltz with a pepper mill. A couple is holding the "New World Atlas" open on their heads as if it were a traditional costume cap: a pretty picture for globalization. Everything is almost without words, but with a lot of music that ranges from Chopin to the Beatles, Maria Callas and Janis Joplin. Sometimes, however, all you hear are the sounds of hot-running motors of completely antiquated household appliances. Nicola Hümpel founded her troupe four years ago at the Bauhaus in Dessau. Since then, she has played her way into the first league of independent groups with a few very strong visual pieces. At the beginning of the year, her piece "Lucky days, Fremder" was shown in Berlin. There, too, the most diverse forms of expression were sampled into a very concentrated performance: elements from video, dance, performance, music and theater. The new piece is more economical with all the set pieces. Variations on the theme of "Modern Times 2000", which clearly show their body language kinship with the anti-heroes of the modernization push of the 20s and 30s, with Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin. Oliver Proske has built a coolly styled cube-shaped container that can be turned and walked on from all sides. At the beginning, it opens and you see legs walking by. Later, one staggers on top of the roof, and you don't know: is he thinking about whether he can fly, or does he just want to throw himself off. "I want to go up!" someone finally said at some point. And once you're up there, you'll fall down again faster than you'd like.

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