“Ronja, your young life is off to a great start!” That is how Lovis greets the robber’s daughter when, on the night of her birth, a bolt of lightning splits Mattisburg in two. On her forays through the forest, Ronja meets Birk, the offspring of the hostile Borka clan. When chief robber Mattis learns of the friendship between the two children, a bitter quarrel ensues.
Ronja and Birk take the children in the audience with them onto the stage and make them active accomplices on their path to self-determination.
Selection committee statement excerpt:
“TOBOSO have once again turned the stage into an experiential space. This Ronja Räubertochter is one of us. Above all, she is one of the children”
We audience members sit in a circle, very close to Fort Mattisburg, in the middle of Mattis Forest. Woollen threads serve as trees, stones glow as grey gnomes, plastic bags swirl around our heads as vicious harpies, mist rises. TOBOSO have once again turned the stage into an experiential space. This Ronja Räubertochter is one of us. Above all, she is one of the children. In the second part of the production, all older audience members leave the room. The children stay behind in the forest with Ronja and Birk. They skip stones and discuss annoying adult habits in a relaxed atmosphere. What bothers you? What should we change? What counts here is the children’s perspective. A self-assertive assumption of power that fantastically undermines role clichés, as they indeed occur in Astrid Lindgren’s literature. With simple yet effective means, TOBOSO have developed an excellent work of actors’ theatre – the first part exciting, loud and wild, then questioning, open and animating in the second part.
TOBOSO develops unconventional theatre experiences for young and mixed-age audiences that aim to open up authentic realms of discovery both on and offstage. TOBOSO values subtlety and ingenuity, good humour, an intensely physical use of characters, objects and materials as well as possibilities to engage directly with the audience in collaborative creation. Maschinenhaus Essen serves as TOBOSO’s home base and production venue.
Dates
Production
TOBOSO, Essen
A coproduction with Maschinenhaus Essen, Theater Duisburg
By Astrid Lindgren and adapted by Christian Schönfelder
Directed by: Moritz Fleiter, Fabian Sattler
With: Elisa Berrod, Elina Brams Ritzau, Moritz Fleiter, Sindy Tscherrig, Fabian Sattler
Dramaturgy: Annette Pfisterer
Musical direction: Lukas Tobiassen
Scenery and costumes: Sandra Hilli Becker
Technical direction: Simon Köß
Performing rights: Verlag für Kindertheater
sponsored by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, Wuppertal Cultural Secretariat, Cultural Office of the City of Essen
