A Flinnworks production, premiered at Dock 4 in Kassel in 2012. Artists of the Flinnworks collective have travelled to Lagos (Nigeria) to research about various implications of power, as in electrity, blackout, state power, or the power of storytelling in Nigerian movies. Nigeria is one of the five top oil exporters in the world, yet the state can't provide sufficient electricity for the population.
In THE POWER PLAY, two actors and one musician manoeuvre between storytelling, science fiction and ritual. Imagine what would happen if all of Germany was hit by a seven day power cut. You can't? Well there is an institute that researches such issues, and what they find is a modern dystopia.
THE POWER PLAY connects storytelling and power-performing with live music of Andi Otto's "Fello" system. It is introduced in the play as one of the unregistered patents by the 19th century inventor Nicola Tesla.
More info on the play and the cast on the Flinnworks site.
Flinn Works - The Power Play
What links the small town of Kassel in Germany to Nigerias megacity Lagos? It is a young Nigerian named Ademola who gets picked up by the Blackberry witch and is magically transported to Kassel, where he makes lots of money... but of course he has to pay a price. In this as yet unproduced filmscript and all its subplots, continents and centuries are crossed in a new form of storytelling: we find out how the IFA oracle and digital technologies are connected and what god Shango and Nikola Tesla have in common. What happens when the whole of Germany is struck by a 9 day power cut? Lagosians would sigh, blame NEPA, and simply use their generators, but in Germany nobody is prepared and disaster seems imminent. If anyone had listened to genius inventor Nikola Tesla - who invented the alternate current and promoted free energy for the world more than 100 years ago there would be no problem with power - neither in Lagos nor Kassel. THE POWER PLAY connects story telling and power performing, with live music that is handmade on the futuristic instrument Fello, a prototype and the only one of its kind. A very special guest performer preaches to us about the oily spirit and where to find the oil of gladness, when the pipelines run dry. On stage: Andi Otto, Toks Körner, Lisa Stepf Special Guest: Konradin Kunze Direction: Sophia Stepf Music: Andi Otto Assistant: Luisa Bitterlin Costumes: Friede Funk & Lisa Stepf Production management: ehrliche arbeit Guide Lagos: Aderemi Adegbite Co-produced by Goethe-Institut Nigeria