[tab name=”Show”]Lungs
Schaubuehne am Lehniner Platz
About the Production
The present day. A couple, a man and a woman, in their late twenties. They live in a big city, are well educated and have interesting jobs. They buy their coffee fair-trade and, as a matter of principle, boycott big chain stores. They watch art-house films in the original version with subtitles and read books about current political topics. »We are decent people« they keep reassuring themselves.
This is happening at the same time. The world’s population is over 7 billion, 2.6 human beings are born every second – soon we will reach 10 billion. The demand for food and drinking water is rising alongside the consumption of energy and resources. It’s getting crowded. Global warming, natural disasters and an increasingly unpredictable climate seem to be the more harmless side effects. Crises and even civil wars fought about water, food and resources loom in the near future.
Can one bring a child into this world? The couple has the desire to have children and from there the conflicts follow: »I could fly from London to New York every day for seven years and would still leave a smaller carbon footprint than if I had a child. Ten thousand tonnes of CO2.« Whilst they argue the clock is ticking– what will be destroyed first: their relationship or the environment?
In 2011, Katie Mitchell directed »Ten Billion« an oppressive lecture, a cross-over between theater and science by the futurologist Steven Emmott. With Duncan Macmillan’s new play Katie Mitchell examines personal and global conflicts at the dawn of the new millennium.
Schaub?hne am Lehniner Platz
LUNGS by Duncan Macmillan
Cast / Creative Team
With? Christoph Gawenda and Jenny K?nig
Direction – Katie Mitchell
Stage and Costume Design – Chloe Lamford?
Sound design – Max and Ben Ringham
Dramaturgy – Nils Haarmann
?Light Design – Jack Knowles
Duration – 75 min
Premiere: November 30th, 2013
[/tab][tab name=”Photo”](c) Stephen Cummiskey
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«Katie Mitchell has developed the process, with impressive perfectionism, into her own, individual and highly-concentrated, narrative-style, […] paradoxically it is in the juxtaposition of the media that she is successful in creating a very intimate, unpretentious, quite old- fashionedly, naturalistic narrative.» ?Peter Laudenbach, S?ddeutsche Zeitung, September 29th, 2010
«The conversational piece by 33-year-old Duncan MacMillan fluctuates between serious poignancy and finely tuned irony as it sympathetically, accurately and amusingly sheds light on the widespread anxiety of those radically concerned with the future.»? Reinhard Wengierek, Die Welt, 1. Dezember 2013
«Two endearing characters and their agonizing and exhausting discourse about personal and global happiness.»? Reinhard Wengierek, Die Welt, 1. Dezember 2013
«Katie Mitchell‘s directing concept compliments the dialogue exceptionally well.» Christine Wahl, Tagesspiegel, 2. Dezember 2013
«Mitchell has apparently found a congenial form for Macmillan‘s piece in the way she uses high-performance sports, cycling in this case, as a metaphor for the ecological dilemma, the way she has the dialogue shift gears parallel to the turning of the bicycle wheels, the way the she shows us the lovers, so far away from each other on their bikes, as lone fighters, each struggling for enlightenment. It’s clearly and thoroughly thought out.» Anne Peter, Die Tageszeitung, 2. Dezember 2013
«As so often with Katie Mitchell […] the entire evening is subjugated to one single idea. And it’s brilliant.» ?Katrin Pauly, Morgenpost, 2. Dezember 2013
«The way the two characters, so close and yet so far apart, work on themselves and each other has an imposing presence and intensity.»? Hartmut Krug, SWR 2, 2. Dezember 2013
«Katie Mitchell’s direction turns the piece, highly acclaimed in England and the USA, into an impressive work of art.» ?Hinrike Gronewold, Weltexpress online, 8. Dezember 2013
«Despite the strenuous athletic activity, Lucy Wirth and Christoph Gawenda perform with expressive prowess. They bring the characters to life, play well off each other and know how to deliver punch lines.»?Hinrike Gronewold, Weltexpress online, 8. Dezember 2013
«Christoph Gawenda and Lucy deliver a tour de force, constantly interrupting each other and effortlessly shifting their perfect pitch day-to-day tones of voice and emotional moods.» Andr? Mumot, nachtkritik, 1. Dezember 2013
«It [the premiere of Lungs] presents one of the most elegant syntheses of Anglo- and German theatre thinking that I `ve ever seen. […] It`s small, bittersweet, thoughtful, truthful, insightful and probably quite harrowing for anyone without children.»? Andrew Haydon, Postcards from the Gods, 4. Dezember 2013
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