SHARON KOTKOVSKY
GAS.2.1
An Apocalyptic Performance and a Rave,
inspired by Georg Kaiser's play GAS II
“Be among them, pass through all the positions: let the words be heard underneath the howling of the pistons and the hamming of the assembly lines. Defeat the uproar with your cry for destruction. This will be the meaning of their effort. Convince them that production is necessary for this war and those half dead, shell come back to life”
GAS II is the third play of Georg Kaiser's GAS trilogy, written in Germany between 1917 and 1920.
After World War I, inspired by the spirit of german experssionism, that dominated all artistic aspects, Kaiser wished to deal with the concept of the “New Man”. The creation of such man, would be possibile only following the destruction of former ideologies and great conventions. Reading the play is overwhelming because it anticipates the drastic events that were soon to come.
The play was adapted into a Performance that takes place in a Rave.
The belligerent factory is the party's environment, the workers of the factory is the dancing crowd. Calls, alarms and the system's requisitions to intensify the production, are coming from above and among the crowd, as well as the scuffling between the Chief Engineer and the First Worker, that represent different views of the system. The factory is in a fatalistic emergency state which is, at the same time, eternal.
Directed by Sharon Kotkovsky with Nir Shaulof
Translation and Adaptation: Sharon Kotkovsky and Nir Shaulof
DJs: Dotan Brand and Michal Pitowsky
VJ: Jordan Barr
Graphic Design: Hagar Rozen
Photography: Oren Ziv and Keren Manor
Cast: Johanan Herson and Ido Ziv
Tel Aviv University and "Levontin 7", June 2011