BERMUDA – F. Wiesel

F. Wiesel approaches the Bermuda Triangle: vessel of all lost objects of the past, present time and future. They work in the reservoir of the disappeared. Printing, constructing, building models of ships and groups of islands. Resulting in a diorama of a place that stands at the end of all theories. The Bermuda Triangle: point where reporting stops, maps end and myth begins. BERMUDA becomes the catalyst of a hysterical concept of truth. At the center of power, the reptilian creature finds itself and spreads its hypermap. Everything becomes plausible.

BERMUDA deals with current truth formation. Dealing with information increasingly demands competencies and own analyses. Fake news and manipulated networks transmit a never-ending stream of apparent truths and connections. Through all filters, the fact itself has lost its legitimacy. What is not fake with certainty? Wouldn't it be more helpful if there were a point holding the chaos together? Scientific knowledge is joined by mythological constructs: Conspiracy theories sometimes seem more legitimate than global warming.

» It appeared that in that region there was an islet so called, always surrounded by chilly mists and water of a deadly cold; that no one had ever reached it, as it constantly changed place; but that a demon hand sometimes uprose from it, and plucked away men and even whole boats, which, when once grasped, usually by night, were never seen again, but perished helplessly, victims of its hand. «
Thomas Wentworth-Higginson, Tales of the Enchanted Islands of the Atlantic, 1898.

Full German recording on spectyou.de (Not subtitled)

Concept & Implementation: Jost von Harleßem, Hanke Wilsmann
Performance: Stephan Dorn
Sound Design: Rupert Jaud
Artistic collaboration stage: Ute Freitag, Friederike Schmidt-Colinet
Artistic collaboration puppet play: Cali Kobel
Costume: Sandra Li Maennel
Costume Assistance: Ardesia Calderan, Lea Sommer
Production: Heidrun Schlegel

April 2018 Recherchephase in Fleetstreet Theater Hamburg
April 27 - 29, 2019 at Künstlerhaus Mousonturm, Frankfurt a.M.
12. + 13.09. 2019 Theater Roxy, Birsfelden/Basel

"You don't need to be a conspiracy theorist to find such phenomenon interesting, and the Frankfurt author-director duo Jost von Harleßem and Hanke Wilsmann, who trade as "F. Wiesel," succeed in keeping the suspense on what will happen right up to the last minute with their "Bermuda" show at its premiere in the Mousonturm. "

Stephan Michalzik, Frankfurter Neue Presse, 29.4.2019

"As source material for the stage, F. Wiesel's "Bermuda" show [...] such speculations inflated to conspiracy theories, conjecture and hearsay are always suitable. [...] The King of Rock'n'Roll, he is alive. He sits in the service of national security somewhere in the depths of the ocean and evaluates data on all the submarines, airplanes and ships that have disappeared without a trace. F. Wiesel quite possibly doesn't pretend to take this seriously. But it's not the harebrained story, it's the telling of stories that matters to the performance, the invention of parallel worlds, the linking of fiction and reality, of facts, rumors and wild fantasies, to which every objection of reason can be taken as further proof of the validity of even the most outlandish theories. And how this works, that once we enter such a universe, we are quite willing to believe the narrator on all the ghost ships and sea monsters as well. In reality, such things might simply be called a mystery. But above all, as F. Wiesel's "Bermuda" engagingly casually shows, this is precisely what is still the mystery of the theater. "

Christoph Schütte, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 29.4.2019

A production by F. Wiesel in co-production with the Künstlerhaus Mousonturm and the Roxy Birsfelden.
Sponsored by: Jürgen Ponto Foundation for the promotion of young artists, Fonds Darstellende Künste, Kulturamt der Stadt Frankfurt, Rudolf-Augstein-Stiftung, Hamburgische Kulturstiftung, Kulturbehörde Hamburg and in cooperation with the Hessischen Theaterakademie.