The Jump

Multidimensional Radio Play: Audio installation by Paul Plamper 

An East German small town called »Leerstadt«. Fugitives arrived in the shrinking city in 2015. The conflicts over immigration escalate when a new right-wing demagogue uses the anger and fears of the citizens and calls for a boycott of the municipal theatre. There, the multinational theatre ensemble is rehearsing a controversial performance with a leading actor from Cameroon. The city gets into a media whirl about racist accusations and Eastern prejudices when members of the theatre announce that they will leave Leerstadt.

The audio installation transports visitors into the middle of conflict and camp formation. In a walk-in sound image consisting of 20 loudspeakers, one experiences a polyphonic panorama of the current social centrifugal forces. Is there a jump out of it?

From above, a springboard with a loudspeaker protrudes into the room. You can hear voices on the board making a start. Then the springing of the diving board and the landing at the bottom, where more loudspeakers are standing on tripods.

This arrangement plays with the distance between the springboard and the floor: Someone takes courage and approaches others with a courageous jump. Another jump ends as a bath in an enthusiastic crowd. Then a jump into the unknown. A jump into a hostile situation. Finally a jump as an attempt at self-empowerment, as a last resort out of the political conflict.

After »Future Dealers« (Museumsquartier Wien 2016) and »Dienstbaren Geistern« (WDR and Ruhrtriennale with BR, DLF Kultur and MDR 2017), which won the German Audio Book Prize, »Der Absprung« is the third and final part of Pampers »Fremde & Geister« trilogy on the construction of the foreign.

Following, a public discussion with the makers on November 8, 2018, at 9 pm will take place.

Further Dates:
• Thursday, November 8, 1 pm and 9 pm 
• Saturday, November 10, 7.30 pm

With: 
Artur Albrecht, Stefan Cordes, Felicia Descher, Richard Djif, Andy Drabek, Fernanda Farah, Ulrich Gerhardt, Margit Hahn, Carl Hegemann, Fabian Hinrichs, Michael Kinkel, Cristin König, Sophia König, Peter Kurth, Franziska Niermann, Tina Pfurr, Peter Schellenberg, Petra Sparbrod, Christian Weber, Dana Weber and many others.

Written, directed and edited by: Paul Plamper
Dramaturgy and Editing: Müller-Wallraf
Production Management, Dramaturgical Collaboration and Editing: Felicitas Arnold
Assistant Director and Editor: Tilman Meckel
Room: Evi Wiedemann
Recordings by: Johannes Scherzer and Michael Krajczok 
Mix and Sound Design: Johannes Scherzer

Production: WDR, castle and cultural enterprise Altenburg with BR and DLF culture 2018
Supported by the German Literature Fund