The Company Commander as a Strict Biographer

Nico and the Navigators fascinate with "Eggs on Earth" in Dessau Dessau/MZ. Show me how you clean your shoes and I'll tell you if you're made for the working world. According to this credo, Nicola Hümpel first introduces the young men and ladies from the waist down, lets them walk through a half-opened container and pass the first testing station on their career: A shoe shine machine. Then they swarm out of a container into the blue in their entirety, young people, more or less conforming to the wardrobe regulations of the business class, staring intently ahead: "Nico and the Navigators" choreograph life paths around a large office cube in "Eggs on Earth": it is equipped with hatches, sliding doors, entrances and exits, rises and falls, which suddenly open or close, providing imponderables, by overcoming which winning types are easily recognizable. All this is mechanically commented on with a few repetitive snatches of phrases from job interviews, self-instructions and telephone calls. Who gets past the anteroom of the ominous, unreachable Mr. Fog? Patience, your case is being processed, they say. Winning poses are already practiced or posture is maintained during initial aptitude tests. Who will immediately cry at sexual harassment? For one, the whole thing is too much, he dreamily cranks a pepper mill and himself back into embryo position. Or he fastens the tie tightly around his neck like a rope. Anyone who shows a little nerve - playfully twists his belly hair into curls - is immediately whistled back by the company commander. The company as superego. The movements of the characters, whether they sit down or twist the corners of their mouths, are all precisely timed. Personnage becomes part of the stage set, which slowly and enigmatically transforms until it freezes into a meaningful composition for a snapshot. The characters are unique, swaying incessantly toward Mr. Fog with music ranging from waltz to rock, melancholy and somehow serene. A dreamlike production, which the spectator cannot forget so fast. Nor do they want to: many people from Dessau set out on Friday to experience it a second time.

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