Walden
Walden - inspired by Shinrin Yoku (Japanese for "forest bathing") - invites to join the indirect path of the flaneur in a forest. Daydreaming, cloud gazing, hiking, identifying herbs and trees and recognizing bird calls. On foot, everything becomes connected. The random, uncontrolled allows you to find something you weren't even looking for. We only recognize the place when we are surprised by it. Every stroller is a guardian on patrol to safeguard the indescribable. The mind pulls focus differently at five kilometers an hour.
After two hours of forest bathing, our steps become heavier, we stop over at the theater and prepare a risky soup from the forest fruits we have collected. We leave the forest refreshed and enter the theater with sharpened senses. The experience continues. With other means, as mycelium performance, with heavy mushroom aromas and sounding stones, in difference and repetition.
Credits
Idea, realisation: Showcase Beat Le Mot with: Annina Dullin-Wintschi, Stefan Ebner, Naz Buhsem, Eva Maropoulos, Magdalena Plöchl, Melisa Su Taşkıran / Assistants: Myrtha Bonderer, Franziska Burger, René Fußhöller / Production management: Olaf Nachtwey, Tobias Brenk
Walden is a production by Showcase Beat Le Mot with Konzert Theater Bern and Theater Freiburg. In Kooperation with Schlachthaus Bern. Funded by Fonds Doppelpass der Kulturstiftung des Bundes.
Reviews
„… the ones who join this experience will discover something. About the forest. About nature. And above all about themselves. ... After almost two hours, we return to the theater for the performance by Showcase Beat Le Mot, where the sensual also takes precedence over everything else. Women and men, move in the semi-darkness, often without any obvious arelation towards each other - yet sometimes surprisingly close. Just like in real life. And occasionally they sing too, to beautiful electronic music. Four hours for eternity."
(Mitteldeutsche ZeitungSeptember, 3rd/4th, 2022, Andreas Montag, "Ab in den Wald! Das Ensemble von Showcase Beat Le Mot lädt bei seinem Gastspiel im WUK Theaterquartier Halle ein, sich mit Thoreau und sich selbst zu beschäftigen" – translation SCBLM)
Interview
«The forest is so much more than just trees.» Four questions to Showcase Beat Le Mot
Gisela Feuz, in "Der Bund" September, 5th 2019
GF: You invite the audience to "walden". Does that mean you play theater in the forest?
SCBLM: No. In our work, we look for ways to create an atmosphere and an awareness for the audience so that they find a different approach to our performance. First we go into the forest, then we perform in the Vidmarhallen. With the forest visit we want to sensitize, to open the pores. We are refering to the Japanese Shinrin Yoku, or forest bathing. We allow the audience to immerse themselves in the atmosphere of the forest and let the forest itself speak through its smells, sounds and the light at blue hour. Drama would only get in the way. The forest stands alone and means nothing. We hope that this attunement will also take the burden of meaning away from our art and that people will be worried all the time asking themselves what message we convey. Our art should foremost simply take place.
GF: 1.5 hour walk in the woods, followed by a two-hour performance in the Vidmarhallen. It's going to be a long evening of theater.
SCBLM: Yes, but the project is very atmospheric. The audience can move freely, switch between 10 self-sufficient performances in the room itself or simply go outside. In the 10 living installations, the forest phenomenon is illuminated and explored from different perspectives. The room itself thus becomes a forest through which you can stroll. "Walden" offers a wide-ranging experiential space into which you can immerse yourself, but from which you can always emerge again.
GF: The title inevitably brings to mind "Walden" from 1854, the book by Henry David Thoreau in which the American describes his temporary life as a dropout. Did it serve as inspiration for your performance?
SCBLM: We are not really referring to the novel. It seems a bit know-it-all at times and today we know that Thoreau stylized his experience a lot. This "back to nature" also has something reactionary about it. With our performance, we don't want to claim that everything is better in nature, we want to explore new ways of creating in our art and involve the audience in the process. We want to leave the traditional theater space, away from the proscenium stage.
GF: Why is the forest "in" right now?
SCBLM: On the one hand, it is present in the media due to the current climate debate. On the other hand, awareness of the healing effects of forests has reached Europe. Forest bathing has been proven to be good for your health. It lowers blood pressure and activates the immune system, to name just two things. The forest also serves as a projection surface for an urban population that transfigures nature. For us as theater makers, the forest is also exciting as a political and historical space. Witches were assigned to the forest and Italian brigands acted partisan-like out of it. So the forest is so much more than just trees.