Red.Forest by Eva Borrmann/PLAN MEE
Fairy tales, especially those written by the Brothers Grimm, are an inherant part of our childhood. But not everything which was written down for posterity was originally destined for children’s ears. Many of the tales the Grimms told were characterised rathermore by the themes of sexuality and death in the original narrative and in the first instance were written and passed down for adults by adults. In this way they were able to capture in images the taboos of the period, human cruelty and incomprehensible fear. The Grimm brothers‘ universal fairy-tales, which have been handed down, are, therefore, a milder version of the original and yet it’s these renditions which simultaneously affirm human existence at this period without mentioning its worst depths – a kind of historical censorship, which still persists today.
Choreographer, Eva Borrmann, rediscovers the fairy-tale, „Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf“, along with her two dancers, Evelyn Hornberg and Lena Schattenberg. In her work she questions the censorship which the tale has been subject to. She scrutinises the themes of relationship, generational conflicts and sexuality, which were intentionally not touched upon by the Brothers Grimm because they considered them too vulgar and excessively violent for a younger audience.
With this production PLAN MEE enters into a contemporary discourse on the fairy- tale: in an age when seemingly all taboos have been eradicated, new taboos seem to be springing up and old taboos reinstated. Furthermore the company will explore how myths and fairy-tales, and the censorship thereof, have formed our thinking, action and behaviour over the years.
In Red.Forest a new interpretation of „Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf“ is presented, which in part makes use of the mime-language used in the traditional ballet version and then distorts it. At the same time text fragments by the French philosopher and writer,Georges Bataille, are to be heard, which create levels of ambiguity when contrasted with the straightforwardness of the Brothers‘ Grimm tale.On the stage the two dancers struggle with fixed attributions, fall victim to Bataille’s surrealist story and have to try to assert their own identity within the narrative. Anyone who knows the Grimm fairy-tale will discover in the piece how Red Riding Hood grows up and will discover new perspectives on the well-known tale.
For PLAN MEE the socially formed human body is the starting point and objective of dance-based research into world experience
Choreography/Concept: Eva Borrmann
Dance: Evelyn Hornberg, Lena Schattenberg
Dramaturgy: Justin Mühlenhardt
Voice: Justin Mühlenhardt, Rebecca Kirchmann
Stage/Costume: Daina Kasperowitsch
Sound: Wolfgang Eckert
Lightdesign: Sasa Batnozic
Assistance: Katharina Simons
Photos: Sebastian Autenrieth
+ Team Tafelhalle
Venue: Tafelhalle/ Nürnberg
Premiere: Dezember 2019
Sponsors: Dieses Projekt wird ermöglicht durch den Bayerischen Landesverband für zeitgenössischen Tanz (BLZT) aus Mitteln des Bayerischen Staatsministeriums für Bildung und Kultus, Wissenschaft und Kunst, Stadt Nürnberg, Tanzzentrale der Region Nürnberg/Fürth e.V. und der Tafelhalle Nürnberg.