Evros Walk Water 1&2

By Daniel Wetzel

«Once you heard this concert I will live in Switzerland as well» – this was the closing sentence of «Evros Walk Water» – a swiss-greek project in 2015 for Schlossmediale Werdenberg. Since then the piece has done those journeys in Europe that it protagonists could not. Developed with minors in a refuge in Athens it places the audience in their positions at the instruments in this landscape like stage of Europe. «Walk Water» (1959) – duration 3 minutes – by John Cage is being performed again and again. Yet in-between everybody changes their positions, again and again, as well as their viewpoints on the narrations of the kids, and the music performed on basis of their directions on the headphones. «Evros Walk Water 1&2» has been developed in may 2017 with the Onassis Cultural Center in Athens. Some of the teenagers have meanwhile moved on, they live in Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark. Others have stayed and ask: How is it for you? The concert continues, the instruments alter, as well as the stories. A music theater piece celebrating the joy of noise, of listening, of participating and re-thinking.

“At the end everybody applauds but nobody can exactly tell why or to whom. (...) Evros Walk Water is a complex documentary, AN immersive audio piece installation that can be accessed by the audience with EASE because they BECOME familiar with these refugee stories in such a direct manner PARTICIPATING IN THE PERFORMANCE. This has been done so brilliantly that only afterwards you start thinking about how big the effort must have been to adjust all these elements with each other. AND it is even more brilliant that the theater makers have disclaimed any big drama IN THE PRESENTATION. (...) It is the human being that stands in the center here, and this is what we should keep about it”. (Rheinische Post)

With the voices of: Abel, Aron, Ehsan, Jawad, Jined, Massoud, Moussa, Omer

English version: Andreas, Dennis, Elektra, Maria, Nefeli, Orfeas, Thodoris

Concept and Direction: Daniel Wetzel

Dramaturgy: Ioanna Valsamidou

Sound: Peter Breitenbach

Stage Design: Adrianos Zacharias (1), Magda Plevraki (2)

Light Objects: Guy Stephanou, Michalis Kloukinas

Light: Martin Schwemin.

Research: Konstantinos Kallivretakis, Ioanna Valsamidou

Research, Assistant: Nefeli Myrodia (2)

Cooperation Sound: Lambros Pigounis (2)

Sound Assistance: Panos Tsagarakis

Video clip: Ehsan

Video programming: Marc Jungreithmeier

Flute, Kaval: Dimitris Brendas

Stage Design Assistance: Magda Plevraki (1), Maria Kakaroglou (2)

Interpreters: Bakar Albakar, Abbas Golbas

Research (Sweden): Margarita Gerogianni

Produktion Management: Heidrun Schlegel (1), Charlotte Streck (1), Violetta Gyra (2), Juliane Männel (2).

Thanks to: Mirella Weingarten, Kurt Scheidegger, design store DMOD Workshop, Society for the Care of Minors, Fotis Parthenidis, Telemachos Tsolis, Dimitra Adamantidou, Eleftheria Lykou, Spyros Tzivelekis, Lukas Alexiou, Theodoros Roumpanis, Valerios Skripkarow, Alice Roorda, Maaike Verbogt, Annelies van der Goot, Roy van Berkum, Menelaos Karamaghiolis, Panagiotis Papafragkos, Stavros Triantos, Nikos Ziogas, Giorgos Kravaritis

Production: Rimini Apparat and Onassis Cultural Centre / Fast Forward Festival (Athens)
Coproduced by HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin
Funded by the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe - Department of Culture
Based on Evros Walk Water – a coproduction by TAK Liechtenstein, Schloßmediale Werdenberg and Rimini Apparat