What kind of reactions are evoked within one, when the walls surrounding you don’t stand still but move continuously? What happens with a person who watches this sensation but isn’t directly affected by it, on an emotional level? And what if those walls mirror exactly what was happening inside one all along?

Our concept for the play “The Island” by Athol Fugard from 1973 is based upon the principle of a constantly shrinking and at the same time growing cuboid that transforms the stage into an interactive playground for the actors. Due to the mobility of the walls that move on rails and the possibility of lowering and raising the ceiling in the form of a gigantic grid, the scenery on stage functions as an active as well as a reactive narrator of scenes. The emotional life of the characters is transferred from the inside to the outside and emphasized through tiltings, extreme angles and narrow spaces that hardly leave any room to breathe.

Various grid projections work as a sort of guide to display the difference between reality and illusion at the same time.

Concerning the playhouse, we decided to design our concept around the ceremonial hall in the Sophiensæle in Berlin.