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Until Our Hearts Stop

Meg Stuart

A belief in magic, or the loss of all illusion? An underground ceremony in a search for intimacy and new forms of contact.

Details

They dream of community. They probe each other with eyes and hands, they cling to each other, striving for black magic. In a night club – or is it a cellar? – they take part in an underground ceremony that promises to lead them to a mystical fusion of the initiated and the curious. To the sound of throbbing basses, piano and drums, Until Our Hearts Stop by Meg Stuart sheds light on the impossible encounters that define the human condition.

In a décor that borrows the lustrous purple and black velvet of magic shows, dancers and musicians invent strange rituals. They make modesty and shame disappear, awaken sources of love and hospitality, seek warmth and tenderness in isolation from the outside world. Whether an empathic healing circle or a mystical, utopian get-together, their bizarre games reveal an irrepressible need for intimacy, as well as the discomfort, awkwardness and violence that need to be exorcized. A belief in magic, or the loss of all illusion?

Credits

Produced by Damaged Goods + Münchner Kammerspiele
Choreographed by Meg Stuart
Created with and performed by Neil Callaghan + Jared Gradinger + Leyla Postalcioglu + Maria F. Scaroni + Claire Vivianne Sobottke + Kristof Van Boven
Dramaturgy Jeroen Versteele
Original Music Paul Lemp + Marc Lohr + Stefan Rusconi performed by Samuel Halscheidt + Marc Lohr + Stefan Rusconi
Set Design Doris Dziersk
Costume Design Nadine Grellinger
Lighting Design Jurgen Kolb + Gilles Roosen
Sound Design Richard König
Choreography Assistant Francisco Camacho
Scenography Assistant Giulia Paolucci
Costume Design Assistant Davy van Gerven
Artistic Assistant Igor Dobricic
Technical Director (creation) Oliver Houttekiet
Technical Director (tour) Jitske Vandenbussche
Sound Design Richard König
Production Manager Sabrina Schmidt

Produced by Damaged Goods + Münchner Kammerspiele
Co-produced by PACT Zollverein (Essen) + Ruhrtriennale – Festival der Künste (Bochum)
With the support of Government of Flanders + Flemish Community Commission
Acknowledgement to Klara Luhmen + Peter Pleyer + Dasniya Sommer + Tami Tamaki + Aurore Werniers + Uferstudios (Berlin)
The performance is dedicated to Paul Lemp, friend and musician of Meg Stuart/Damaged Goods.

Presented with the support of Goethe-Institut Montréal + German Federal Foreign Office in association with Usine C

Written by Mylène Joly
Translated by Neil Kroetsch

Premiered at Münchner Kammerspiele, Munich, on July 18, 2015