NO LIMITS International Theatre Festival

"The limits of my language mean the limits of my world." With this sentence in the back of his head director and artist Wojtek Ziemilski started working on a piece for four performers with hearing impairments. And he realised how true this sentence actually is. His own language appeared to him increasingly inadequate. When people talk to each other in sign language, they look into each other’s eyes and not at their hands. Their language is more than a sequence of mechanical hand signs – they speak with their entire body. Consequently sign language has become the perfect dramatic medium for Ziemilski, as a sort of performance quite similar to dance.

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Director Wojtek Ziemilski With Marta Abramczyk, Jolanta Sadłowska, Paweł Sosiński, Adam Stoyanov Music Aleksander Żurowski Stage Design & Assistant Director Wojciech Pustoła Costumes Krystian Jarnuszkiewicz Lighting Design Artur Sienicki Advisor Katarzyna Glozak Overtitles Dorota Krzywicky, Dòra Kapusta, Artur Zapalowski, Maria Wilska Support The ministry for culture and national cultural heritage 
www.nowyteatr.org

Is it possible to depict trauma? Erkan Özgen’s Video "Wonderland” explores this question by having 13-year-old Mohammed report about his experiences as a refugee. Together with his family Mohammed used to live in the city of Kobane in northern Syria, which resisted the attacks of IS militants for 107 days. As he can neither see nor hear Mohammed uses his body, exclusively, to convey his traumatic experiences – vivid, full of energy, without obvious sadness. He confronts us with what he himself had to live through on this escape from the IS. These are experiences, which we would not be able to withstand even if we only dreamt about them. His performance throws us as viewers back upon ourselves and questions the concept of humanity.

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A Film by Erkan Özgen, Türkei 2016 
erkan-ozgen.blogspot.de

The future starts now: A three-day symposium offering lectures, performances, talks and controversial perspectives concerning care. In this case we take care not only as a medical issue but as social, creative and political strategy to address the violent present. In cooperation with theorists, activists and artists with and without disabilities from fields of performance, the arts, political activism, social work, science, healthcare and sex work, "Take Care" is searching for a critical understanding of care that might support a form of political imagination necessary to override the dividing myths of neoliberal individualism.

Detailed programme & tickets for symposium: takecare.no-limits-festival.de

Curators Jeremy Wade, James Leadbitter With Liz Crow, Eva Egermann, Loree Erikson, Simon Geils, Lena Grünberg, Johanna Hedva, Hannah Hull, Eliah Lüthi, Rebecca Maskos, Robert McRuer, Neve Be, the vacuum cleaner, Matthias Vernaldi, Rebecca Yeo, Michael Zander, Johanna Zinecker and others

At NO LIMITS two years ago Dennis Seidel of Hamburg’s "Meine Damen und Herren” both surprised and impressed with his One-Woman-Show "Ordinary Girl”, which is a deeply moving and funny melodrama with a Lynchian streak. Now, in 2017 Dennis Seidel presents a world premiere at NO LIMITS:  His drama "The day Kennedy was murdered and Mimmi Kennedy became president”, which tells the story how president John F. Kennedy was murdered and how the real assassin has to be found.

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Director Dennis Seidel With Noa Michalski, Celina Scharff, Michael Schumacher, Dennis Seidel, Lina Strohtmann and two Barbie dolls Music Kevin Hamann, Dennis Seidel Text assistance Daniela Chmelik Costumes Gloria Brillowska Video 17motion Lighting Carl Hoffmann Dramaturgy Anja Redecker Assistant Director, Line Producer Christoph Grothaus Production barner 16 in cooperation with NO LIMITS festival Berlin 2017
www.meinedamenundherren.net

In the midst of an onslaught of news reporting about forced migration, climate change, the destabilisation of Europe, rising nationalism and the erosion of human rights, J & J ask exactly the right questions: What are the causes of fear and what effects does fear have on us. How do we deal with it? How could a "space for potential" look like, in which ideas for another future can develop? Taking the "The Art of a Culture of Hope" as their title J&J create a long-term project about our values, our fears, our hopes and about our shared future.

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Concept & artistic direction J&J (Jessica Huber & James Leadbitter) With Mondkalb, Neve Be, Kim Noble, station 17 DJ-Set, Tourettes Hero, the vacuum cleaner Set design & artistic collaboration Gabriela Rutz with Ramin Mosayebi Support Stadt Zürich Kultur, Migros Kulturprozent, pro helvetia
www.theartofacultureofhope.com

Consciously or subconsciously we touch others and ourselves, we are touched and allow being touched. With their new production tanzbar_bremen turn their attention to this omnipresent, at times unnoticed, sensuous aspect of our being. The trio of dancers explores the most diverse variations and effects of bodily encounters with utmost curiosity. What do moments of physical proximity evoke in us? How do we configure them? How do they shape us and hence our way of moving through life?

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Dance, choreography, development Neele Buchholz, Corinna Mindt, Oskar Spatz Light Timo Reichenberger Dramaturgy Günther Grollitsch, Lars Mindt Production tanzbar_bremen / steptext dance project, made in the context of Modellprojekt KompeTanz
www.tanzbarbremen.com

A performative offer: Everyone comes together in a festively decorated room in order to celebrate a wedding. The bride has a physical disability – the groom does not. Accordingly all the guests of the bride are also disabled – or: are made disabled. Chance decides who lives through the wedding with a disability and who without. At separate tables the guests celebrate with dance, wedding games, sentimental and less sentimental speeches. For some everything is different, for some everything is normal. But what is "normal"?

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Concept dorisdean With Christopher Bruckman, Phillip Hohmann, Anna Júlia Amaral, Patrizia Kubanek, Wera Mahne, Miriam Michel, Charis Nass, Kübra Sekin, Daniel deVicente. Production dorisdean
www.dorisdean.de

We lie between two and 200 times per day – depending on what you define as a lie: Untruths, post-facts, exaggerations, omissions, courtesies, empty phrases. But how do you spot a lie? Do gestures and facial expressions subvert the spoken word? In order to find out about the construction of truth "Luegen" pits two actresses against each other – one of them can hear and the other cannot. The stage becomes an experimental space for what is communicated consciously and subconsciously, it becomes a laboratory of authenticity that invites you to decipher, to look more closely and to observe.

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Staging Verena Regensburger With Kassandra Wedel, Wiebke Puls Stage Marie Häusner Costumes Veronika Schneider Video Ikenna David Okegwo Light Michael Pohorsky Sign Language Interpreter Marco C. González A. Dramaturgy Manon Haase A Production by Munich Kammerspiele Support das Kulturreferat der Landeshauptstadt München
www.muenchner-kammerspiele.de

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By and with Helliot Baeza, Manuela Calleja, Anna Friedrich, Jaime García, Carla Morera, José Manuel Muñoz, Daniel Parejo, Yali Rivlin A Production by Danza Mobile in Coproduction with Yugsamas Movement Collective
www.danzamobile.com

Back to Back Theatre from Australia is the globally best known theatre with so called mentally disabled artists. Their unique ensemble of actors gives voice to social and political issues that in the end speak to all people. This year, Back to Back will come to Berlin with a new undertaking: RADIAL is an experimental long-term movie project at the end of which stands a portrait of a community in motion. 
 
Back to Back offer a three-day workshop in Berlin, which includes dance improvisation and a film shoot. The result: a video portrait of a community in motion, which will be shown at a public film screening at Theater Thikwa, including a party with Berlin local DJ Gary Flanell. 

All people are also invited in Berlin. Everyone can participate, no performance experience is required, just an interest in making art and working together with an inclusive community. Participation is free and filming will take place. Everyone should allow at least 30 minutes to participate. You are also welcome but not required to stay for the full session.

To register, and arrange a time to participate, please email:
workshops@no-limits-festival.de

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Back to Back Team Berlin: Ensemble Member Sonia Teuben Co-Director Rhian Hinkley, Tamara Searle Videographer Rhian Hinkley Composer Harry Myers Covill Production Manager Dans Sheehan Senior Producer Alison Harvey
www.backtobacktheatre.com

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Concept Jérôme Bel By and with Noah Badir, Remo Beuggert, Gianni Blumer, Damian Bright, Matthias Brücker, Nikolai Gralak, Matthias Grandjean, Julia Häusermann, Sara Hess, Tiziana Pagliaro, Fabienne Villiger, Remo Zarantonello Assistance, Translation Simone Truong Dramaturgy Marcel Bugiel Production Manager Svetlana Ignjic Produced by Theater HORA – Stiftung Züriwerk Coproduced by R.B. Jérôme Bel, Festival AUAWIRLEBEN (Bern), Kunstenfestivaldesarts (Brüssel), dOCUMENTA 13 (Kassel), Festival d'Avignon, Ruhrtriennale, Festival d'Automne à Paris, Les Spectacles Vivants – Centre Pompidou (Paris), La Bâtie – Festival de Genève, HAU Hebbel am Ufer  Support City of Zurich Culture, Kanton Zurich, Department of Culture, Pro Helvetia, Stiftung Denk an mich, Ernst Göhner Stiftung
www.hora.ch / www.jeromebel.fr

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By and with PeterLicht Musical accompaniment Benedikt Filleböck
www.peterlicht.de

Why puzzle your brains about the big bang theory, evolution or gravity? May be Earth is just a slice of bread after all. Let’s rather apply ourselves to what really matters in life: Cake, sex, music, fun and unicorns on roller skates.  The multi-transdisciplinary team of barner 16 from Hamburg put us into their time machine and take us on a tour through world history, not without delivering us a proper scientific brainteaser. The methods? Unconventional. The means? Artistic. Historical accuracy can be ruled out – indeed forgotten at the sight of this truly original bonfire of dance and talk, documentary film and animation, philosophy and phantasy, knowledge and quiz show.

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By and with Tim Borstelmann, Daniela Chmelik, Lis Marie Diehl, Thorsten Graf, Josefine Großkinsky, Christoph Grothaus, Marc-André Klotz, Melanie Lux, Thomas Möller, Tom Reinecke, Celina Scharff, Carsten Schnathorst, Michael Schumacher, Paula Stolze, Daniel Tietjen, Matthias Zalachowski Guests PeterLicht, Jacques Palminger Music Station 17 / Christian Fleck, Nils Kempen, Hauke Röh, Felix Ernesto Schnettler, Sebastian Stuber, Benni Thiel, Alex Tsitsigias With contributions by Katharina Bromka, Kevin Hamann, Christian Hebel, Birgit Hohnen, Rohullah Kasimi, Tamara Keitel, Dennis Lange, Dennis Seidel, Jonas von Wassenberg, Matti Wustmann, Annette Wirtz Costumes, Stage Nadira Nasser Assistence for Costumes, Stage Johanna Quack Sound Rene Huthwelker Light Marek Lamprecht, Florian Timpe Video Iskender Kökçe, Lutz Auhage, Monika Bödewadt, Peter Kelm Dramaturgy Marcel Bugiel Line ProducerLea Connert Support die Kulturbehörde Hamburg
www.barner16.de

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By and with Gianni Blumer, Burkart Ellinghaus, Solene Garnier, Matthias Grandjean, Julia Häusermann, Felix Loycke, Florian Loycke, Brian Morrow, Dasniya Sommer, Emir Tebatebai, Anne Tismer A production of Das Helmi and Theater HORA in cooperation with NO LIMITS Festival Berlin 2017
www.das-helmi.de / www.hora.ch

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Group 1: By and with Addas Ahmad, Tiana Hemlock-Yensen, Konstantin Langenick, Anne-Sophie Mosch, Hilarius Urban Choreography Juli Reinartz Stage Isolde Wittke Costumes Pablo Alarcón Lighting Design Katri Kuusimäki Group 2: By and with 2 Felix Brünig, Deniz Dogan, Katharina Maasberg, Sammy Serag, Christian Wollert Choreography Martin Nachbar Music Boris Hauf
 Stage Isolde Wittke Costumes Pablo Alarcón Lighting Design Katri Kuusimäki
www.thikwa.de

A shared room of presence is created by an inclusive group of performers, dances and actors in “The Hype”: Driven and accompanied by the virtuoso play of pianist Philipp Zoubek and under direction of Alexandra Knieps and S.E. Struck (SEE!), this six hour long continuous performance goes through various constellations, tempi and modes of collaboration, of reacting to each other, of navigating space, putting all those present into the perpetual loop of the present.

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Concept, Direction, Choreography SEE! (Alexandra Knieps, S.E. Struck) With Kristina Brons, Martin Clausen, Anca Huma, Linda Fisahn, Christian Schöttelndreier, Laurens Wältken, Composer, Pianol Phillip Zoubek Space Cordula Körber Costumes Svenja Gassen Dramaturgy Felizitas Stilleke Production Supervisor Bela Bisom, I CAN BE YOUR TRANSLATOR / Lis Marie Diehl Produced by SEE! in co-production with FAVORITEN 2016, I CAN BE YOUR TRANSLATOR Dortmund and Schauspiel Köln. Support Das Ministerium für Familie, Kinder, Jugend, Kultur und Sport des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen and Kunststiftung NRW / Schauspiel Köln
www.seeindeinerstadt.de

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Director Ben Pettitt-Wade & Ensemble With Lindsay Foster, Gareth John, Sam Harding, Dan McGowan, Richard Newnham, Ben Pettitt-Wade, Morgan Thomas Puppet dramaturgy Tom Espina, Giulia Innocenti (Blind Summit) Puppet builder Blind Summit Technical Supervisor Tom Aires Light design, Production supervisor Ceri James
www.hijinx.org.uk

Vaguely Artistic is the inclusive resident band of Hijinx Theatre. Vaguely Artistic have been making music and touring the stages of Wales since 2010. The Players: Singers and instrumentalists, performers of the Hijinx Academy and of the Hijinx theatre group Odyssey. Their Playlist: Chaos, covers and original songs, which are a cross of punk, blues, pop and rock. Vaguely Artistic promise musical anarchy for all – and a lot of fun!

By and with Dan Burston, Stuart Campbell, Gary Cook, Matthew Cook, Tanya Dower, Amy Griggs, Ian James, Geraint Stewart-Davies Musical Director Daniel McGowan
www.hijinx.org.uk/vaguely-artistic/