Utopolis

By Haug / Kaegi / Wetzel

500 years ago, while writing his utopian vision of “the best state of the republic and the new island of Utopia”, Thomas Morus was thinking of a society without private property, citizens with equal rights who would be ready to abstain from individualism and egocentrism for the commonweal: a society which didn't yet exist in a “non-place”.

Where are we today? In times of euro-skepticism, nationalism, privatisation and demagogy, one should pick up Morus's book once again and open it to specific pages, which might be re-used for a new idea of living together, to search for new models for society beyond our filtering bubbles. Is the commonly postulated diagnosis true, that the early 21st century lacks utopian ideas? For 'Utopolis', Rimini Protokoll transfers the idea of a meeting place far above the walls of theater and immersive installations and on to the whole city.

For the individual audience members the performance begins at 48 different starting points. A small group will meet with other audience groups over the course of the event while forming networks. At the end will stand a mass of 300 people and an artistic ritual, which will bring together and bundle contemporary utopian ideas with suggestions, answers and vision of the audience; even if in ephemeral and sketch-like form. The codex of a new proposal for society, formed during that evening, will be legible for all and generate a new experience. The horizontally woven tale of a utopian society. How large can this system become before it falls apart?

Utopolis Manchester

Writer / Directors: Helgard Haug / Stefan Kaegi / Daniel Wetzel

Dramaturg: Katja Hagedorn

Associate Director: Rebecca Taylor Sharman

Composer: Harry Ovington

Sound Designer: Dan Steele

Associate Sound Designer: Phill Ward

Designer: The Office of Craig Oldham

Creative Technologist, Sound System: Chris Ball

Creative Technologist, SMS System: Steffen Klaue

Participation Coordinator: Yatie Aziz

Producer: Natasha Chubbuck

Executive Producer: Henrietta Duckworth

Production Management Rimini Protokoll / Touring: Juliane Männel, Louise Stölting

Utopolis St. Petersburg

Voices: Kira Berman, Nadezhda Vedenyapina, Elina Kulikova, Vladimir Kuznetcov, Glaphira Lavrova, Ivan Nikolaev, Alexey Platonov, Sergei Polotovskii

The performance in St. Petersburg is supported by the Goethe Institute and the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Utopolis Cologne

Voices: Sophia Burtscher, Prof. Ulrich Coersmeier, Garrelt Duin, Manuela Erpenbach, Margot Gödrös, Stefko Hanushevsky, Barbara Krebs, Seán McDonagh, Ursula Mussenbrock, Ulrike Pütz, Kristin Steffen, Parthena Trellopoulou-Pauli

Utopolis Lausanne

Voices: Lisa Veyrier, Lola Giouse, Olivier Glaizot, Edmond Pittet, Matthias Seidel, Chiara Occhipinti, Lucile Nicole, Antonin Ricard, Lucie Barge Khlat, Maï-Lyne Steiner, Cristina Martinez, Marie Ammeter, Isabelle Campiche, Pierre-Paul Bianchi

Commissioned by Manchester International Festival, Theatre Olympics 2019, Schauspiel Köln and Coventry UK City of Culture 2021. Produced by Manchester International Festival.