Gesine Danckwart

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UA: 7.01.2009 · Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin · Directed by: Gesine Danckwart
You call your play “car” – in doing so, which meanings of cars are you interested in?
The meanings cars have are huge..., at least every seventh workplace depends on them, technological developments, hopefully progress, environmental questions, and finally our concept of mobility. The car as a means of transportation fundamentally dictates our life: where we live, how we work, how we spend our free time and thus, ultimately, our way of thinking… the car is the symbol of a modern society: individually mobile.
And, additionally, this technologically highly complex thing is a very emotional object. Nearly everyone associates intense experiences and memories with it. … along the car, you can tell stories upon stories. …

Theatre and cars, at first glance, belong to very different areas. How do you bring them together?
…you can see the theatre as a space of production, where something is produced, where machines, technicians and artists work on a common product which then must be sold. And we have discovered very theatrical moments looking at the car, at the process of selling and buying. … This becomes especially clear, … in the car worlds … there, they have staged brand temples, and the customer’s new car is presented on a turning stage, while his favourite music plays – and others watch. That’s theatre.
Just recently it has become apparent again, how much joys and sorrows of the Germans… depend on this product “car”.

Are you also interested in cars as symbols of wealth and prestige?
Cars are and always have been a status symbol. Dead certain. … The car is a social module, identities depend on the brands, I am what I drive – or not… (Berliner Zeitung)