Theatre as a sweet surrogate – Festive days at the Radialsystem for the 25th anniversary of Nico and the Navigators
Is it possible to expand or anaesthetise consciousness without risks and side effects? And what role does theatre play in this? These are the questions addressed by the music theatre company Nico and the Navigators in the play "sweet surrogates". Its premiere marks the start of the festive days at the Radialsystem, with which the company is celebrating its 25th anniversary.
Conceived as a chamber version of the music theatre production "Lost in Loops", with which the Navigators opened their anniversary year, "sweet surrogates" was to be dedicated to the theme of intoxication in an entertaining way. "Our aim was to rediscover theatre as a space that celebrates life in the post-corona phase," says Nicola Hümpel, who founded Nico and the Navigators together with Oliver Proske at Bauhaus Dessau in 1998. However, current world events such as the war in Ukraine and the Gaza conflict cannot be ignored. Nevertheless, the theme of intoxication remains central to the play - and with it the question of the extent to which theatre can be a sweet surrogate "to get intoxicated away from the daily horror news and enjoy life even in these times."
With the augmented reality performance "Du musst Dein Leben rendern!", which can also be experienced during the festival, the Navigators want to show a way of what theatre could look like in the future. The combination of dancing avatars and real dancers has created a choreography in which the boundaries between image and body blur into a new entity. "Life-size 3D figures interacting with the dancers in space is technically unique and quite unrivalled worldwide," says Nicola Hümpel.