Trans-S world premier

a Virtual Reality Theatre about the perceptiv senses in a mixed-media environment

5.5.2022, (Premiere) / 6.–8. / 12.–15.5.2022, 7:30 and 9:00 pm (on Sundays 6:00 and 7:30 pm)

Freies Werkstatt Theater Köln, Zugweg 10, 50677 Köln

Podcast sereie 11 with Prof. Dr.-Ing. Rüdiger Dillmann and JProf. Dr. Christoph Rodatz about Virtual Reality and theatre:

Inspired by the experience of the pandemic, Trans-S tells the story of a human being who, after an isolation imposed for his own good, is released into a new digital world. In a 3-part setting, the audience enters a bizarre living world with VR glasses, meets again in the control room like in a stranger's memory and finally comes face to face with a robot and its philosophical questions about the future. Perception, consciousness and reality were already the focus of previous productions such as TRANSFLEISCH, format BLACKBOX:, BLUR and VIRTUAL BRAIN. With Trans-S, the audience is now drawn into an immersive experience that allows the questions to be experienced sensually.

Fotos: ©Alessandro De Matteis

Trailer

Critics

"At the same time, a screen is removed behind the glass pane and the supposed mirror turns out to be a window behind which one can observe a group of actors who visually transpose what they hear. But they are not actors at all. You realise this at the latest when you are led into the room you were looking into just a few minutes before. ... Shielded under a helmet, with headphones and virtual reality glasses, you hear the story from before again, but this time from the perspective of the experiencer and actually with all your senses: You smell coffee and damp grass and feel the rain. "Trans-S" by WEHR51, currently being performed at the Freie Werkstatt Theater, is not an evening of theatre in the conventional sense, but plays with the viewer's perception. You have to get involved - and are rewarded with an experience that is not commonplace." (Daniela Abels in: Kölnische Rundschau)

"An experiment in perception in two acts: The first time, the story connects with what can be seen in the theatre space. The second time, images viewed through VR glasses enrich what is heard. An avatar comes into view, which in the story becomes the antagonist of a world determined by humans. A philosophical discourse begins about the sovereignty of interpretation in the structure of man, nature and technology." (Norbert Raffelsiefen in: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, 12.5.2022)

text excerpt

Avatar: You are falling into old patterns. We are now living in Gaia, and as citizens of Gaia, we try to avoid competition.

I: You mean Gaia, the Greek goddess who was born out of chaos, so without the help of ova and sperm?

Avatar: The Gaia hypothesis says that the system earth is one single living organism and the single parts are mutually dependent on each other. Both the humans and the Avatar want to survive and they can only do so if they save the Earth from overheating and collapsing.

I: Oh no, you can't be serious

...

Avatar: "When I watch you thinking, I get as bored as if you were watching the plants growing here in the garden. The difference between the speed of thought and action of me, an artificial intelligence, and you, a human being, is about 10,000, if you know what I mean?

I: „????“

Avatar: "Yawn."

I: "Uh, you mean you think 10,000 times faster than I do?"

Restart and VR version funded by: Die Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien, dem Bundesverband Soziokultur im Rahmen von NEUSTART KULTUR, Kulturelle und soziokulturelle Programmarbeit

Playwriting supported by Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media in the frame of the program #takecare

A production of WEHR51 in coopration with Freihandelszone
supportet by Kulturamt der Stadt Köln, Ministerium für Kultur und Wissenschaft des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen, RheinEnergie Stiftung Kultur and NRW KULTURsekretariat.
We would like to thank the Humanoid Robots Lab of the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelm-Universität Bonn




Stückentwicklung