_night.flowers -

A pianistic séance

"We live from possibilities and die from realities." Hans Kudszus, "Yes, No Words"

The pianist and composer Søren Gundermann (Frankfurt-Oder) presents an evening between concert and theater together with puppet maker and performert Frank Soehnle (Tübingen). In a dialogue between music and animated objects, they tell stories from inside the piano about memory, longing and forgetting, about unknown nocturnal growths of sounds and movements. Together they create images of the merging of things and the blossoming of new possibilities.

"If there is a sense of truth, there must also be a sense of possibility" Robert Musil, "The Man Without Qualities"

Frau von Goldberg varies reality.
She has different variations of her biography ready.
And about what might have happened to her husband.
She has invited guests, including a puppeteer and a pianist, both specialists in uncovering hidden stories, to examine her mysterious piano. It should contain far more than the usual interior made of wood, metal and felt.
String creatures – animals of the touch – winged horses.

 

Premiering December 1st, 2022
Duration 60 minutes, no break - for audiences aged 10 and over

press reviews

Ms. Goldberg varies reality
Frank Soehnle and pianist Søren Gundermann inspire with "night.flowers"
 The nightly silence is deceptive. Frau von Goldberg rises spooky, beaded and wrapped in her fur coat. She inspects the black grand piano on the stage. She is inventive when it comes to her own biography. The legends surrounding the disappearance of her husband are mysterious.
Frau von Goldberg has invited guests to examine her mysterious piano: figure maker Frank Soehnle and composer Søren Gundermann take the audience on a journey into the interior of the piano. A surprising game begins, in which ghostly beings appear from the grand piano and come to life in the intoxication of the music.
With dynamic tone sequences, the pianist gradually lures the keyboard animals and string creatures out of the grand piano. A flower ballerina spins around in a black lace dress, or puppeteer Soehnle brings a winged horse to life. It races around the piano at a frantic gallop while Gundermann opens a musical dialogue.
The brisk sequence of tones is based on a melancholy that tells of longing, memories and oblivion.
The figures, which Soehnle built from parts of an old piano, float, run and rise in an elegant dance.
A fantastic journey that questions and redefines the concept of reality and its interpretation. The result is a philosophical performance that combines concert and puppet theater in a poetic way.”
Südwestpresse 03.12.2022
 
What is Reality
Frank Soehnle and Søren Gundermann impress with their mastery and have both already been awarded international prizes. In this joint work, they trust their respective art form and listen to each other. The power of the analog game enchants the audience.
This staging exerts a pull. The professional figure dance theater (choreography Karin Ould-Chih) in combination with the wonderfully diverse sounds of the keyboard instrument draws the audience into a world of poetry, a world of dreams; a world that is not clearly ordered, but awakens the unconscious in us. The real becomes unreal and the unreal becomes real. A virtuoso game with sounds and figures. In the end, the grand piano plays by itself, as if by magic.
PMO, puppetry journal of the Association of German Puppet Theaters, Dec 2022

cast

Puppets and puppeteer Frank Soehnle
Compositions and piano Søren Gundermann
Choreography Karin Ould Chih
Costumes Sabine Ebner
Light Christian Glötzner

Technical requirements

STAGE SPACE

  • Stage area at least 6 x 5m (width x depth) · Rising rows of seats for spectators
    (Insight into the wing interior is desirable)
  • · Stage height at least 3.00m
  • · Room that can be darkened
  • · Dark stage floor
  • · Hanging option for aisles on the front right and rear left
  • · Dark walls or black curtains (black box)
  • · Distance from the first row of seats to the edge of the stage at least 1.5 m

PIANO

  • Semi-concert grand or concert grand - black, tuned
    Lid must be removed
    (free view of the interior of the wing from all sides)
  • Piano bench/piano stool

LIGHTS & SOUND

  • Lighting control desk with 12 channels (without hall light) for manual control
  • · 1 x 1000 watt ETC profile spotlight
    12 x 500/650 watt Fresnel
    (2 special spotlights are brought along)
  • Complete sound system, connection for laptop
  • Stage help for assembly and dismantling
  • Wardrobe for two people
    If no light and sound system is available, we can bring both.

TIME

• duration 60 min – no interval
• set up 5 hours – break down 45min

Essential – please take note!

  • It must be possible to darken the stage area completely (blackout)
  • Maximum audience capacity: 150 personsThe performance is suitable for youth and adults
  • Please discuss all variations with us in advance.

Your contact for technical questions:: Christian Glötzner, Tel. +49 176 71297676

ChristianGloetzner@gmx.de