Our sleep is more fragile than we are
theater performance
3 cameras, 3-channel live video, 3-channel synchronised video loops, synchronised wireless in-ear-headset with performance directions, 3 choreographed performance parts with the exactly same length, 3 built spaces in 4:3 image ratio
Coproduced by Digital Spring Festival and ARGE Kultur Salzburg, AT
Nighttime. An anthrophologist rehearses a speech for an audience. A woman in a bathroom is fighting her face's traces of insomnia. A neuroscientist in a sleep laboratory is listenting to her patient's cases on a dictaphone. All of them can be observed in a spatial cross-section. Three characters unified by the inevitable reference system of human being – the metre of sleeping and of being awake. Three opposing actions, each connected in a common purpose: being in search of a strategy to finally extract something beneficial of the significant amount of time one has to sleep in life.
rehearsal trailer
The artistic key element of "Our sleep is more fragile than we are" is that the performances in the different rooms and their looped live videos are synchronized, resulting in choreographed moments of the exact same movement in all three video channels and the live performance, before their actions diverge again.
In order to secure the synchrony for the piece an extended movement research and hyper choreographed directing was a vital part of the process. Additionally, the actress (Anna-Maria Hadorn) was equipped with an invisible in-ear headset that gave her precise performance directions almost every second she was moving around. She was required to perform a perfect playback of her own movements without any possibility of deviation.
Concept, Text and Directing: Miriam Schmidtke
Actress: Anna-Maria Hadorn
Stage and Costume Design: Miriam Schmidtke
Dechnical Director: Martin Siemann
Video: Martin Siemann, Martin Hofmann, Cyprien Leduc
Lighting: Cyprien Leduc, Martin Siemann
Helping hands Stage Design: Theresa Reiwer, Christina Chelaru, Lili Avar, Sebastian Neumann
Helping hands Tech set-up: Stefan Reineke, Julian Eric Christian Speakers: Sabrina Heuer-Diakow, Alexander Schank