At the Beginning of the Middle of the End - This is the Beginning
A cinematic science fiction project in co-operation with Lebenshilfe Nürnberg and Kulturwerkstatt auf AEG
The inclusive project mixes science fiction and documentary, theatre, performance and film, and asks how life on another planet could be possible and necessary. The idea of inclusion is incorporated both on a fictional level and into the artistic examination itself.
Picture: Gunnar Seidel
About the project
If we had to leave planet Earth at the end of the year, what would we do? Perhaps for the last time. Or for the first time. How did it come about that people have to leave their planet? Where do they have to go and what will planet X look like? How should life be shaped? Or will it continue as before elsewhere? How do people who are supposed to ‘pack their bags’ behave with the knowledge that they are leaving the planet in a space shuttle? What dramas occur on a personal level, what political fronts open up? What are real scenarios for a bad development on Earth and what are real scenarios for a planet X?
The project team of ‘This is the Beginning’ is working, researching, fantasising, rehearsing, filming and acting. The ensemble on stage – from different age groups, different backgrounds, different levels of professionalism, with and without disabilities – represents a small cross-section of our society. The work in the research phase is enriched by interviews with scientific experts, whose information not only inspires the imagination of the ensemble but also appears directly on stage in video form. Environmental and futurologists are included, as well as experts in disaster protection and astronomy.
A mix of live film, science fiction and documentary offers the ideal space for this. The fantastic in science fiction is boundless and yet scientifically based. It stimulates the imagination, invites us to play and perhaps for this very reason can question people in their being in a special way:
What future can a mixed-abled group imagine and what light does this process shed on our current being? What is the significance of the social fields of action of diversification, diversity-oriented coexistence and, in particular, inclusion? How can we think about these in new and broader ways, and what processes of change are needed to do so? Why do we so often strive for technical solutions and neglect social solutions? What constructive social narratives can we counterpose to the often technology-focused view of the future?
Fotos
From the process...
A young girl devastated, a man builds a kind of space capsule for himself, a woman in the dark – singing a lullaby – pushes the empty stroller, quickly packing a suitcase, a prayer, the vacant gaze of a woman left alone in a wheelchair. How is the world doing? Cut!
Scientists in blue light, sterile coats, alien food, the logbook with an astronomical label – is this the future? – People in panic at the sound of spaceship sirens. Cut!
Politicians in heated dispute. Will the spacesuits be enough for all of humanity? Is Planet X really permanently habitable? Is leaving Earth irreversible? Fast, hectic camera movements, the film projected live onto the back wall, a close-up, getting closer and closer, eyes wide open. Cut!
The film team interrupts. Or does it even interrupt the fiction of the film team? Is this where the theatre situation ends? What is this? Conversations between the real actors Matthias Eberle and Andree John, others need to drink. Autobiographical insights. Worries. Fantastic ideas for the future. Real annoyances about playgrounds that are not wheelchair accessible.
Infos
Premiere 09th May 2025 at Kulturwerkstatt auf AEG, Großer Saal
Concept, Director Gunnar Seidel
With Norbert Habel-Kill, Andree John, Isabel Langhans, Ralph Lauschner, Diana (Rosy) Oboroceanu, Fenea Scharf, Eva-Maria Weiß, Lotta Marie Wieners, Emilia Zahner, Matthias Eberle, Mirjam Schollmeyer, Niklas Kammermeier
Camera Niklas Kammermeier
Stage Maria Pfeiffer
Production Julia Opitz
Production Lebenshilfe Andreas Schönberger
Dramaturgy Dominik Breuer
Carer Adelheid Grellner, Uta-Maria Siegmann
PR Anna Zahner
Social Media Felix Kramer, Annika Maaß
In Cooperation with Lebenshilfe Nürnberg and Kulturwerkstatt auf AEG
GeföFundings Aktion Mensch, Kulturreferat der Stadt Nürnberg, Hehl Stiftung