sweet surrogates

25 years NICO AND THE NAVIGATORS

Nico and the Navigators improvise freely, winding and letting go, moving with and through music. An organic, deeply human whole is created from bodies, sounds, words, gestures and dance. Performers do not disappear behind the figurativeness of a role, but come to the fore as wide-awake, vulnerable performers … Sharp-witted social analysis on the one hand and soul-searching poetry on the other: for Nico and the Navigators, this is no contradiction … Nico and the Navigators are full-body poets.
Anna Schors / OPERNWELT

In their new play, NICO AND THE NAVIGATORS devote themselves to the sweet excuses that promise an unboundedness of consciousness without unpleasant side effects. But is the substitute as good as the original? Is the toned-down excitement enough for us because we shy away from the risk of extremes? And in the end, isn’t art also a surrogate for life?

After the great longing formulated most recently in “Lost in Loops”, the chamber version takes a more concentrated and sceptical look at the subject of intoxication. For the euphoria longed for after the pandemic has failed to materialise, new crises are shaking the world – and the desire for redemption in ecstasy seems more urgent than ever. With its musically streamlined version, the ensemble celebrates its 25th anniversary at the Radialsystem: a party full of energy and sweet seduction – as well as sober moments.

An expanded view of reality is also promised by the AR performance “You have to render your life!”, which will also be shown during the festival week – sweet surrogates? 

Dates

Su. 17. Dec. 2023
18:00 Uhr
Radialsystem – 25 Jahre Navigators - Berlin
Sa. 16. Dec. 2023
20:00 Uhr
Radialsystem – 25 Jahre Navigators - Berlin
Fr. 15. Dec. 2023
20:00 Uhr
Radialsystem – 25 Jahre Navigators - Berlin
Th. 14. Dec. 2023
20:00 Uhr
Radialsystem – 25 Jahre Navigators - Berlin

Cast

Nicola Hümpel Artistic Direction >>
Tobias Weber Musical direction chamber version >>
Andreas Hillger Dramaturgy >>
Oliver Proske stage >>
Peyee Chen Soprano >>
Nikolay Borchev Baritone >>
Ted Schmitz Tenor >>
Martin Clausen Actor >>
Patric Schott Actor >>
Alba de Miguel Dance, Choreography >>
Florian Graul Dance, Choreography >>
Lucas Johnson Musician >>
Tobias Weber guitar, electric guitar >>
Elfa Run Kristinsdottir Violin >>
Matan Porat Piano >>
Paul Hübner Trumpet, music dramaturgical advice >>
Philipp Kullen Drums, Percussions >>
David Winter Light >>
Sebastian Reuter Sound Design >>
Marie Akoury Costumes >>
Nicola Hümpel Costumes >>
Hendrik Fritze Video >>
Sophie Krause Video >>
Henrike Wiemann Artistic collaboration >>
Sonja Winkler Stage design assistance >>
Franziska Katharina Huhn Production >>
Talea Nuxoll Production >>
Leonie Schirra Production >>

Press reviews

Sandra Luzina / ARTE Journal

In their anniversary production, Nico and the Navigators go on a trip…The collage moves between ecstasy and dissolution of boundaries, delusion and melancholy and fuses different musical styles…Nico and the Navigators, the pioneers of a new musical theatre, still have the knack.
Sandra Luzina / ARTE Journal

Link to the article: https://www.arte.tv/de/videos/118110-000-A/musiktheater-25-jahre-nico-and-the-navigators/


Transcript:


Mod: In their anniversary production, Nico and the Navigators go on a trip. "sweet surrogates" is about the longing for collective intoxication, but also about the big question of what art can still achieve today. 


N. Hümpel: The question we ask ourselves is: can culture still intoxicate us in a time of social and political upheaval, in a cultural end-time mood? Can we still fly away in moments? Can we, together with the audience, still live this situation and make it tangible so that we remember who we are?


Mod: Live cameras extend the stage into digital space. There is often something psychedelic about playing with perception here.


Proske: We try to use filmic means to portray the state of intoxication in a different way. In other words, to alienate the image recorded live in such a way that the means we have there actually create a feeling of what it might be like to be intoxicated.


Mod: The piece was again developed through collective research. 

The collage moves between ecstasy and dissolution of boundaries, delusion and melancholy and fuses different musical styles. 


Hümpel: The music selection is simply the result of the participating artists deciding what they want to contribute to this theme, what their feelings are.


Mod: Nico and the Navigators, the pioneers of a new musical theatre, still have the knack.



Frauke Thiele / RBB-Kultur

The piece: a collage of emotional states, expressed through the images that dance, song, theatre, video and, again and again, carefully dosed words create on stage. Despite constant breaks in the music, the five musicians tie everything together organically and are themselves constantly involved in the play. Dancing themselves into a frenzy, then writhing as a tortured creature, coming together in a group or throwing themselves at each other in a frenzy of blood. Or all alone, desperate. The pianist at the piano, he feels the piece – you can see it in his eyes, projected large on the screen … And it is these emotional sculptures of image, movement, facial expressions and music that linger … Artistic chaos as a reflection of the chaos of the world.
Frauke Thiele / RBB-Kultur

Link to the feature: https://www.rbb-online.de/rbbkultur/radio/programm/schema/sendungen/der_tag/archiv/20231214_1600/kultur_aktuell_1645.html


Cultural apocalyptic mood as the starting point for "sweet surrogates": a mysterious carpet of music, on the large screen above the stage a video image mixture of billows of smoke and a grey, lonely winter road. And a poem about art as an intoxicant (...) Hugo von Hofmannsthal wrote it, the sonnet is called Künstlerweihe. And the actor speaks it as if it were written for the abysses we are facing today. The world, shaken by violence and crises, there seem to be no certainties. 


[Nicola Hümpel:] How do we deal with this, what can we still tell in the space, in the art space? [Nicola Hümpel, Artistic Director] And sometimes our strength dwindles and we see what is happening out there and feel small and powerless. 


Can "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" help? The song is sung almost like a question. And the rhythmic twitches of the two singers, dancers and performers on stage are not an answer at all. 


[Nicola Hümpel:] The big question that stands above everything is, can art still seduce us or not?


She can, with a drama that makes you drunk. The singer sings her aria with such intense expressiveness, zoomed in on the screen, that the two performers, whose hair she is ruffling, are completely befuddled. 


[Nicola Hümpel:] It's a great longing to work with singers in such a way that they can really sense and feel and live the music within themselves and make their own personal film - and I think that's the only way we can really bring the classical music we love so much into the present day.


The piece: a collage of emotional states, expressed through the images that dance, singing, acting, video and, again and again, carefully dosed words create on stage. Despite constant breaks in the music, the five musicians tie everything together organically and are themselves constantly involved in the play. Dancing themselves into a frenzy, then writhing as a tortured creature, coming together in a group or throwing themselves at each other in a frenzy of blood. Or all alone, desperate. The pianist at the piano, he feels the piece - you can see that in his eyes, projected large on the screen. 


[Nicola Hümpel:] It's a very touching scene for me, because Matan comes from Israel and carries this tragic story within him. And when we did it in the rehearsal room, I really burst into tears because I saw everything reflected in his eyes.


The others on stage pause, observe, take part. This is also a spontaneous reaction from the rehearsals, captured in the play. So what can save us? There are no answers, we can't find them in distraction, substitute religions or ecstasy. As intense as the experiences may be, we can only live again and again, on and on. A beautiful image of this is when the dancer turns slowly on the floor and, filmed from above, it looks as if he is walking in circles. Completely relaxed, and then faster and faster, as if he were disappearing into a whirlpool. And it's these emotional sculptures of image, movement, facial expressions and music that stick with you.


[Nicola Hümpel:] We can't make political speeches, the mouthpiece we have is music, is the body, is the soul. And that's what we talk to and that's what they do to each other on stage and that's what they do to the audience.


A plastic bag twisting in the wind, the dancer doing the same. Sheet music swirling around - artistic chaos as a reflection of the chaos of the world. And sung very timidly, almost like a question: Here comes the sun...




Annett Jaensch / Rostrot-Texte

In general, the ensemble’s performance resembles elementary particles that always walk the fine line between ecstasy and crash. There is no turning back, only moving on. Just like in real life. In this eclectic cosmos, it comes as no surprise when Bob Dylan appears next to the mad monologue from “Die Meistersänger von Nürnberg”, belting out “Buckets of rain”. When sheet music has a fast-paced rendezvous with a wind machine or a lonely breakdance suddenly seems to capture all the sadness in the world … But what characterises the Navigators’ special signature? Making classical material permeable for today’s eyes and ears? Combining music, text and movement like a collage in such a way that the themes resonate as if by themselves? Lend even the most existential questions a bittersweet lightness? One could answer all together at this point!
Annett Jaensch / Rostrot-Texte

Wisps of mist waft through a wintry landscape. Beneath the large-format video projection, a group of people lie rubbing their eyes as if they have just fallen into the world. "And when we are tired, art should inspire us", the lines of poetry from "Künstlerweihe" by Hugo von Hoffmannsthal then lift the scenery completely over the threshold of romanticism. The anniversary production makes this little journey through time clear right from the start: In "sweet surrogates", art itself takes centre stage.


What use is it as a place of refuge in times of permanent crisis and uncertainty? How much collective intoxication can still be experienced with it today? The chamber version of "Lost in Loops", which was shown this spring, is intended to explore these questions. What initially sounds like bulky fare becomes a light-footed ride through the references with Nico and the Navigators. And the company, which was founded by Nicola Hümpel and Oliver Proske at the Bauhaus in Dessau in 1998, has already plucked some top-class musical works from its repertoire: Schubert, Mahler, Rossini, Britten, Schütz and Handel, to name but a few.


But what characterises the Navigators' special signature? Making classical material permeable for today's eyes and ears? Combining music, text and movement like a collage in such a way that the themes resonate as if by themselves? Lend even the most existential questions a bittersweet lightness? You could answer all of the above at this point! And there is another aspect that makes the productions, which so readily embrace the musical heritage, appear to be in tune with the times: the use of technology. Nicola Hümpel and her colleagues were among the first in Europe to experiment with VR glasses and augmented reality in the theatre space.


In "sweet surrogates", it is the live cameras next to and above the stage that control and enhance the visual pull of what is shown. The Taiwanese soprano Peyee Chen raises her voice to baroque heights in close-up, holding Patric Schott and Martin Clausen by their heads like marionettes. When zoomed in, their faces become landscapes of rapture and agony. In general, the ensemble's performance resembles elementary particles, always walking the fine line between ecstasy and crash. There is no going back, only forward. Just like in real life.


In this eclectic cosmos, it comes as no surprise when Bob Dylon appears next to the mad monologue from "Die Meistersänger von Nürnberg", spilling out "buckets of rain". When sheet music has a fast-paced rendezvous with a wind machine or a lonely breakdance suddenly seems to capture all the sadness in the world. At the end, the thematic bracket even closes for the sea of fog from the beginning: with an enchantingly fragile version of the Beatles song "Here comes the sun". Happy birthday!

Dr. Ingobert Waltenberger / Online Merker

Berlin world theatre and virtuoso ensemble art at its finest.
Dr. Ingobert Waltenberger / Online Merker

Link to article: https://onlinemerker.com/berlin-radialsystem-sweet-surrogates-umjubelte-jubilaeumsauffuehrung-zum-25-jaehrigen-bestehen-von-nico-and-the-navigators/


"The soul is buried and suffocated... Rotten things glow pale on nightly paths.... And we are tired, art should excite us. Until we are raptured in the intoxication of empty agony." From Hugo von Hofmannsthal's "Künstlerweihe"


In Vienna, Paris, Prague and Berlin, completely unique, holistic theatre forms have emerged in recent decades that have redefined, explored, illuminated and celebrated the interaction of music, videos, dance, acrobatics, pantomime, poetry and literature in space, stage design and décor in independent mixtures, and continue to do so today in constant development. Poetry in word, image and sound and the human being in all its existential conditionalities and conceivable facets of the real and paradoxical serve as programmatic universes of experimentation and search.


The "Serapions-Theater" at the Odeon in Vienna, founded in 1973 by Ulrike Kaufmann and Erwin Piplits, the "Théâtre du Soleil", founded in 1964 by Ariane Mnouchkine, whom I admire above all else, has become an unmistakable brand, which provided unforgettable theatre evenings in the Parisian "Cartoucherie", an old munitions factory in the Bois de Vincennes, or the Prague "Laterna Magika", in which poetically enchanting effects are distilled from the elements of film, light, music and pantomime.


Founded in 1998 at the Bauhaus in Dessau and relocated to Berlin in 1999 (first Sophiensäle, from 2006 Radialsystem), Nico and the Navigators have been around for 25 years. Thanks to the creative duo Nicola Humpel (artistic direction) and Oliver Proske (stage), the ensemble has been able to conquer a top international position. They have created something like a fascinating Berlin world theatre. Movement choreography, breakdancing and acting are interwoven into a higher whole against the backdrop of moving image projections, which are mostly captured live with cameras placed at the side, front and above the scene, directly or digitally alienated, which amplify or multiply the stage action.


The music plays a very special role in the 38 productions to date. It is realised live by a great instrumental ensemble (violin Elfa Run Kristinsdottir, guitar Tobias Weber, drums, synthesizer and composition Philipp Kullen, piano Matan Porat, trumpet Paul Hübner) and the vocal trio Peyee Chen (soprano), Ted Schmitz (tenor) and Nikolay Borchev (baritone) and integrated into the dramatic action by the performers.


In the new production "Sweet Surrogates", the musical part is a rousing mix of pop (The Beatles, Rolling Stones), Billy May, songs (Bob Dylan, The Shivers), opera ('Ebben' from "La Wally" by Alfredo Catalani, Hans Sachs' mad monologue from Richard Wagner's "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg"), Renaissance sounds (Barbara Strozzi, Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber), classical modernism (Dmitri Shostakovich, Britten, Ravel, Vaughan Williams) and minimal music (John Adams, Philip Glass), the finally rediscovered sound-noise post-minimalist Julius Eastman ('Joy Boy') and Richard Strauss' "Morgen" turned out to be particularly flavourful, opulent and reflective of our lives.


Hugo von Hofmannsthal was 17 years young when he wrote the sonnet "Künstlerweihe", the third and fourth verses of which can be understood as the navigation points of the evening:


Recently my eye fell on Master Wolfram's book, Vom Parzival, and before me stood the curse that laments from the lost Grail: "Unseliger, was hast thou not asked?" In pity foreboding mute anguish free: That is the only true artist's consecration!


"Fin de siècle" mood, a "basic feeling of a cultural end time, characterised by the deep shaking of social, political and religious certainties, made the poet doubt his vocation until he wanted to discover it in Master Wolfram's Book of the Parzifal." (Dramaturg Andreas Hillger).


After a quarter of a century of working together, Nico and the Navigators wish to pause, determine their current position and reflect on their future course with this production, which addresses, among other things, intoxication as a civilising outlet and cement.


Art as a sweet substitute, as an exercise in mortality? I think that immersing oneself in artificial simulation, in fantastic stories told with great emotion in books, on stage or in paintings, beyond an everyday life that for many is exhausting or even grey, can enable people to take a short break from their own ego, to send it on holiday, so to speak. Moved by the eternal dichotomy of too much or too little, lack or excessive demands, hunger or gluttony in the literal or figurative sense, evenings such as 'sweet surrogate' allow us to trace the secret of the golden mean, to achieve a state of catharsis after compassion, completely relaxed, satisfied or positively agitated. Hillger puts it like this: "Defiance and consolation, excitement and reassurance lie close together here, the radical feeling of isolation is just as possible as the experience of maximum community."


To illustrate what has been said in 22 scenes, Nicola Hümpel has combined music (see above), texts by Ingeborg Bachmann, Charles Baudelaire, Walter Benjamin, Hofmannsthal, E.H. Lawrence and the Navigators as well as colourful cross-cultural action to create a sensually thoughtful to humorous chamber play in her specific stage language. "Senior ensemble member" of the Navigators Patric Scott spans the red thread of the action as a permanently buffoonish play director, cynical diabolus and smooth seducer.


Starmime Martin Clausen has the most extreme scenes to himself: In a creepy number, he is allowed to spit theatre blood and black bananas into a pulp and eat them from the stage floor before he begins to make music in his Adam costume.


At times, all the performers snuggle up to each other like puppies, compensating for the characters' forlornness with closeness. The fourth movement of Dmitri Shostakovich's first piano concerto is highly amusing. In a grotesque whirlwind of paper, stacks of sheet music are blown about by hand or the wind machine, taking the chaos of artistic creation by storm.


On the other hand, Florian Graul enchants with a highly poetic and virtuosically elastic breakdance number to Barbara Strozzi's "Che si poó fare" and the Spaniard Alba de Miguel puts on a breathtaking flamenco furioso. Tenor Ted Schmitz, who interprets the English-language numbers by Britten and Williams in a particularly heart-rending way, is allowed to sizzle erotically from man to woman and back again on a wheeled vehicle to "Beauty" by "The Shivers" ("I live off love, I feed off love, I breathe off love, I think of love, I drink of love, I sink in love,."). But the musicians also get their stage solos. Pianist Matan Porat, for example, can be admired in close-up and with the piano spinning from above in the excerpt from the second movement of Maurice Ravel's Piano Concerto in G major.


The series of images on a vertical screen stretched across the centre of the stage range from icy, foggy cold to rain and drops of water on glass to faces bathed in hallucinogenic colours or psychedelically blurred. Towards the end of the non-stop piece, the mood brightens with the heavenly 'Evening Song' from "Satyagraha" by Glass, Strauss' "Morgen" and "Here comes the sun" by the Beatles.


It turned out to be a great evening for an important theatre ensemble from Berlin's independent scene that is not only close to my heart. The enchantment and overwhelming effect has taken place, the spark has once again been ignited.


After a welcoming address by Matthias Moor, programme director of the Radialsystem, the anniversary celebration was followed by a moving laudatory speech by the most likeable and authentic cultural politician I know, Senator for Culture Joe Chialo. Olaf Schmitt, artistic director of the Kassel Music Days since 2016, honoured the artistic achievements of Nicola Humpel, Oliver Proske & Co. with his intellectually dazzling speech, just as the brilliant Annedore Kleist brilliantly dissected the depths and shallows of the genre in a witty and highly entertaining speech.


Conclusion: Berlin world theatre and virtuoso ensemble art at its finest. May "Nico and the Navigators" remain with us for another 25 years. The Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion - Department of Culture - is definitely willing to support them.








Sandra Luzina / Tagesspiegel

In “sweet surrogates”, Nico and the Navigators are now looking for collective ecstasy. Here, art is a substitute with a guaranteed euphoric effect.
Sandra Luzina / Tagesspiegel

In October 1998, a completely unknown group made a guest appearance at the Sophiensaele in Berlin. Nico and the Navigators, founded at the Bauhaus Dessau, presented their production "Ich war auch schon einmal in Amerika" in the Hochzeitssaal. Word quickly spread that a completely new stage aesthetic could be marvelled at here. And soon the audience was queuing all the way to Sophienstraße. "It was incredible!" says Nicola Hümpel looking back. "It was the time after reunification. The city was eager for projects that reflected the attitude to life at the time."


Congenial duo: Nicola Hümpel and Oliver Proske


The group led by director Nicola Hümpel and set designer Oliver Proske really took off at the Sophiensaele. Here they developed the cycle "Menschenbilder": In "Lucky days, stranger!" (1999) was about rituals of farewell (1999), "Eggs on Earth" (2000) thematised the constraints of the working world, in "Lilli in putgarden" things took on a wondrous life of their own (2001). It was a pretty crazy group of individualists that Hümpel had gathered around him: talented amateurs such as Martin Clausen and Patric Schott and the ex-dancer Lajos Talamonti were among them, but also former fellow students of Nico from the University of Fine Arts in Hamburg.


Hümpel had officially enrolled there for industrial design, but she mainly made sculptures and installations and developed performances. It was there that she met Oliver Proske, a student of the design pope Dieter Rams. The fact that Nico and the Navigators' theatre is so different also has to do with the fact that the two heads come from the art academy. Their aesthetic has sometimes been described as "designer theatre", but that's not quite right. Although the search for precision of form is characteristic of their work, it is never just about surface effects.


The method: improvisation releases the hidden


When asked about formative influences, Hümpel mentions the painter and director Achim Freyer, whom she met at the Bauhaus Dessau in the early 1990s. Freyer is known for his cross-genre visual theatre. Hümpel adopted some of his methods, but developed them into her very own way of working because she was only interested in figuration to a limited extent. "I was always interested in the emotional core behind it and not the form. The form was just the vehicle, so to speak, to immerse or penetrate the soul, to release something through reduction, deceleration or acceleration that would never happen in a normal reproduction of an emotion."


Even as a little girl, Nicola Hümpel carefully observed the people around her. She always noticed when something wasn't right, when the gesture didn't match the tone of voice or the words didn't match the eyes. This behavioural researcher's eye also shapes her way of working, which she describes as guided improvisation. She begins the improvisations with tasks or small motifs. Movement sequences, gestures and facial expressions are then dissected, recombined and overdrawn. She has been teaching this method at the Otto Falckenberg School in Munich for 14 years. She is always delighted when she sees one of her former students using her techniques on television. With the Navigators, she has sometimes teased out a funny talent that the player had no idea about. "I believe that every Navigator has found this part of themselves in their own way that they don't live in life, but do on stage."


The protagonists are heroes of comic failure


Dishevelled hairstyles; neat costumes: in the early plays, the characters were always rather despondent and confused contemporaries, these heroes of comic failure catapulted themselves into all kinds of oblique positions and threw themselves into curious communication rituals. The absurdities of everyday life are played out in the scene collages. The multifunctional stage spaces created by Oliver Proske were always co-players and counter-players. The strictly rational design formed a contrast to the human inadequacies. The Navigators are also famous for their cryptic, twisted sentences. One-liners such as "And why deny your origins on a slope?" or "My dilemma is on the brink."


Over the years, Nico and the Navigators have developed their very own style. Of course, there have always been dry spells. But the group was simply too successful to stop. They also had a circle of prominent supporters who always encouraged them to carry on. At one point, however, Nicola Hümpel did think about quitting. She wanted to do one more production and take all the freedom she could; if it failed, she would then dissolve the company. However, "Kain Wenn & Aber" (2003) was a great success.


A Schubert evening together with the Musicbanda Franui


The Schubert evening "Wo Du nicht bist" (2006), which was created in co-operation with the Austrian Musicbanda Franui, marked a turning point. Previously, Nico and the Navigators had made picture theatre with music, but from then on they experimented with new forms of musical theatre. As a result, more professional singers, dancers and musicians joined the troupe. The Japanese dancer Yui Kawagutchi and the American tenor Ted Schmitz are among the key protagonists of the second generation of Navigators. Hümpel has now modified their working methods somewhat. However, when working with singers, she is also interested in developing a characteristic physicality far removed from all operatic conventions.


Phenomenal to last so long as an independent group


"Our aim is to negotiate existential themes between the genres of song, music, dance and drama with each other and on an equal footing," says Hümpel, describing the joint approach. Productions that have characterised the ensemble include the Handel evening "Anaesthesia", the Rossini production "Petite Messe Solennelle" and "Silent Songs" … Nicola Hümpel has also directed at the Stuttgart and Hanover State Operas. However, she has never been tempted to only work at large theatres: "I know that I wouldn't be able to do my work exclusively at permanent venues. It's a signature style that is based on the fact that the people who are involved want to do it."


To last 25 years as an independent group is phenomenal. That's why the Navigators want to celebrate their anniversary in style. In February, the group put on a one-off performance of "Lost in Loops" at the Konzerthaus and are now developing a chamber music version of the piece, "sweet surrogates", once again focussing on the topic of intoxication and addiction. The piece was once again developed through collective research.


The fact that Nico and the Navigators are so successful is also due to the fact that Nicola Hümpel and Oliver Proske work so well as a pair of artists: "We are very diametrically opposed in some things, so we have very different skills and that's probably why it worked out," says Proske with dry humour. Initially, he had nothing to do with theatre and just wanted to build something for his girlfriend. Proske is also responsible for management and technical management. Looking at the figures was always sobering. But the work always inspired him.


The constant struggle for adequate funding sometimes brought the artist couple to the brink of despair. But now Nicola Hümpel and Oliver Proske are optimistic about the future. Because Nico and the Navigators are now to be given a budget title again. They already had this once before, but it was revoked under Culture Senator Lederer. Which also upset some cultural politicians at the time.


Reliable funding at last, another reason to celebrate


Other companies that have proven their worth over many years are also to be given their own budget items from 2024. For Hümpel, this is a historic step. "After a long career in the world of 'independent' theatre, it is now possible to become a permanent Berlin institution with planning security, even as a company without a house. This is particularly important in musical theatre, as we have to plan well in advance." There is certainly reason to celebrate. In "sweet surrogates", Nico and the Navigators are now looking for collective intoxication. Here, art is a substitute with a guaranteed euphoric effect.









Katrin Starke / Berliner Bühnen

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”.
Katrin Starke / Berliner Bühnen

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.



An anniversary production celebrating the 25th anniversary of the company, supported by the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe and funds from the Lotto Foundation Berlin. In co-production with Konzerthaus Berlin and in cooperation with Radialsystem.

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