How beautiful it is in the world

No one really likes to deal with death. People prefer to repress the topic because they don't want to confront the fact that there is a final end for everyone, and sometimes under dire or painful circumstances. But when "Nico and the Navigators" take on this theme, fear is out of place; the style of the company founded in 1998 by Nicola Hümpel (direction and artistic direction) and Oliver Proske (spatial conception) is too clever and playful, too cheerful and nonchalant. In April, their new play "Niemand stirbt in der Mitte seines Lebens" premiered at the Konzerthaus. Now this evening about "Lebensrausch und Totentänze" can be seen for three performances at Radialsystem. Nico and The Navigators with "Nobody dies in the middle of his life". Even the title is a bit of a gag, since there is of course no insurance for the jaunty statement. But in its lightheartedness, you really want to believe it, don't you? Maybe a little bit also because of him this production is so loved by the audience. "We were able to enjoy super positive feedback everywhere," says Nicola Hümpel: "The audience usually lets themselves in openly and without shyness to the various aspects of the productions. During discussions after the performance, there were passionate and extremely honest discussions, which was a very special experience." For the ensemble, it is of course extremely uplifting that the intensive and unprotected examination of the complex of "dying and death" was appreciated in such a way. The actors see this as encouragement to continue to tackle the superficialities of everyday life with the means of art. And to examine for themselves what sense and purpose there is in always wanting to be active and to maintain control in every situation. Because some things are stronger - and sometimes it's better to get involved with them than to resist them at all costs. Personal experiences play a role in this play, the final farewells, for example, from grandparents and parents, from friends and colleagues. Nicola Hümpel was inspired, among other things, by Michael Haneke's film "Love. At first she wanted to flee the cinema right away, but then she stayed and was quite happy to have watched the old couple until the end. Nevertheless, the "staged concert" does not cower in melancholy and melancholy, but sees itself as a fearless, determined celebration of life - especially in the face of death. There is much to laugh about and not only depressive music. Basically, the evening is Dionysian in character and shows a high-pitched delight in existence as "dancing and celebrating against one's own mortality," says Hümpel. Accordingly, a phrase by Christoph Schlingensief, who died in 2010 at the age of fifty, sets the tone: "I'd love to just shout to everyone how great it is to be on Earth!" In addition to the dancers Yui Kawaguchi and Ruben Reniers, singers participate and, along the way, let all kinds of evocative noises sound works by, for example, Johann Sebastian Bach and Franz Schubert, as well as songs by Leonard Cohen, Ludwig Hirsch, Rufus Wainwright and Paul Simon ("The Sound of Silence"). In addition, violinist Elfa Rún Kristinsdóttir, double bassist Winfried Holzenkamp and percussionist Philipp Kullen provide a broad spectrum of sounds between baroque and pop, between art song and quodlibet. Matan Porat, who himself sits at the piano, is responsible for the musical direction and arrangements. After this multiple and challenging subject, the company, which despite its enormous successes at home and abroad has to fight for economic survival year after year, will soon dedicate itself to the Bauhaus on the occasion of its 100th anniversary. "The Betrayal of Images" will be a performative journey through the Dessau Masters' Houses, the Kolbe Museum in Berlin and all the way to Brussels, asking about the reliability of the visible and the manipulation of perception.

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