A theater company in the age of the Internet

Actually, it was only a matter of time before the era of Internet search engines and electronic route planners would filter through to the stage. The likelihood that this impulse would come from the free-floating scene rather than from the firmly anchored municipal theaters also seemed relatively high. But that an ensemble would demonstratively call itself "Nico and the Navigators" and then elevate this name to a program for a spatial survey with seemingly conservative coordinates was not foreseeable by any stretch of the imagination. Since their debut, however, this unexpected group around the studied architect Nicola Hümpel has been present quite naturally and extraordinarily successfully. The Bauhaus Dessau, where after the predecessor "DenkVorGang" the actual first work "Ich war auch schon mal in Amerika" (I've been to America before, too) was launched in 1998, is now the only constant asset on the otherwise languishing Schlemmer stage. And at Berlin's Sophiensaele, where they made themselves at home last year at the latest with "Lucky Days, Fremder," their current production "Eggs on Earth" recently secured not only sold-out performances, but also participation in the "Impulse" festival. So it is hardly surprising that Nicola Hümpel, who was born in Lübeck in 1967, sees herself exposed to many desires and, in addition to declarations of loyalty, now also has various denials in her repertoire. In particular, she fends off the comparison with Sasha Waltz and Friends, which is at least spatially obvious, precisely because she can still count their dramaturgical mastermind Jochen Sandig among her friends and supporters, even after the company's move to the Schaubühne. Hümpel's Bildertheater, which also owes its suggestive power to the functional aesthetics of Oliver Proskes' stage designs, provides the reason for such comparisons, which limp along the feuilletonistic middle course, because of its incompatibility. For with the help of a peculiar working method that may seem to outsiders like a mixture of therapeutic self-experience group and associative appropriation of the world, Nico and her navigators create sequences of scenes that are difficult to describe and whose unagitated charm is hard to resist. At the intersection of design and consciousness, they observe their own generation concealing its existential insecurity through demonstrative self-dramatization. The fact that all these exaggerated portraits are presented with the necessary seriousness, but also with a sovereign cheerfulness, makes them definitively exceptional among all the wing-beating exciters in their neighborhood. The flip side of this care, however, lies in comparatively sprawling production intervals that require a special degree of discipline and self-exploitation. Because Nico's navigators practice the slow-motion rhythm of their performances even as they work them out, they must re-establish themselves in the fast-moving novelty market every year. A way out of this misery, which is compensated by all participants with side jobs, would be a continuous promotion you the improvement of the so far unsatisfactory rehearsal situation. The impulse of the "Impulse" could be just as helpful on this path as the increasing media presence, which the ensemble would like to strengthen soon with its first own film production. But given the seriousness of their claim, no quick sprint to the next best goal is to be expected here either: Nico and the Navigators, whose name seems to so accurately assert its place in a pop culture, will probably continue to prefer the next, well-considered step to an ill-considered leap into the whimsical hit parades.

<< Back to press overview