"We want to create rituals"

August 29, 2024

Director Daniel Schüßler about "Save the planet – kill yourself" in Cologne – Premiere 09/24

For its 20th anniversary, the Analog Theater is putting on a major production: "Save the planet – kill yourself" deals with the question of how planet Earth can be saved from human exploitation. A conversation with director Daniel Schüßler.

choices: Daniel, 20 years of Analog Theater – how do you see your development when you look back?

Daniel Schüssler: The founding of Analog was ultimately a logical step when I decided to direct. In the city theater, we wouldn't have had the opportunity to work collectively with different artists and their expertise. We can do experiments that interest us and don't get stuck in certain patterns. On the other hand, I'm surprised that we still exist.

Why?

We are heading for times of extreme cuts. At the moment we are not feeling the cuts, but even after 20 years there is no security. For example, three years ago we were unexpectedly dropped from the state's concept funding, along with four other Cologne groups that have been around for a similar length of time. That was a huge setback for planning security. We were lucky that we were able to make up for the missing sums using federal funds from the Performing Arts Fund. Now, according to current plans, their budget will also be cut by around 50 percent. In times of budget cuts, the funding rate for all independent groups will go down again. That is a concern. Productions on the scale that we have made in recent years would then no longer be possible. As a successful group in Cologne that has worked at a certain level for many years, we would like to see the funding made permanent - not just as financial security, but also as respect for the work we have done over the years.

Is your new production "Save the planet – kill yourself" something like an anniversary production with a special claim?

"Save the planet..." is a very big, special production because we are doing experimental music theater for the first time. Music has always played a big role in our productions. But for "Save the planet..." we have an eight-person semi-professional choir of people of different ages who will support the production vocally, linguistically and performatively and serve as a multiplier for the audience. The production is designed as an immersive, walk-in spatial theater, with up to 16 people on stage. That's a big deal for us. And in addition to our composer Ben Lauber, we have also brought in sound engineer Alfredo Adria, who makes field recordings (recordings of sounds not produced by the producer, editor's note) and builds crazy instruments.

What is experimental music theatre?

We experiment with music that alternates between classical singing, a weird hip-hop number or new music. One of our inspirations was the American composer and vocal artist Meredith Monk, who has also worked with choirs. Another inspiration was Chris Korda, an artist and gender activist from the USA who founded the Church of Euthanasia. A provocative church that advocates that humanity remove itself from the world in order to stop climate change.

Who is Chris Korda?

Chris Korda is a queer activist in the USA and now lives in Berlin. As the Godmother of Self Extinction, she uses slogans such as "Thank you for not breeding" or "How to join a suicide cult" to argue that we should not reproduce because of climate change. Since the 1990s, she has playfully and provocatively spread the slogan "Save the Planet Kill Yourself" with actions and performances at global economic or climate summits. For example, she has carried out actions on the Thames or, dressed as a giant penis, sprayed people with artificial foam at anti-abortion demonstrations. With her attempt to have an activist influence on society, she is somewhat reminiscent of Christoph Schlingensief. I can't follow her in all her actions, but I found it fascinating to think through her thoughts consistently. We took up a second suggestion from the Swiss author Charles Ferdinand Ramuz. In his 1929 novel "Falling into the Sun," he described how the earth is catapulted out of its orbit and falls toward the sun. This causes the earth to become hotter and hotter. That is very modern and, as a disaster novel, actually anticipates climate change. We are not retelling the novel, but rather using it as inspiration.

How do you bring this to the stage?

It will be an evening that deals strongly with rituals. The evening aims to be immersive, playing with moods, with songs that you can sing along to, with the emphasis of the audience. The title "Church of Self-Annihilation" says it all: we want to create rituals like other religious communities in order to move away from the cognitive. The goal is that at the end of the evening or every evening, we humans look away from ourselves and no longer see ourselves as the crown of creation. So ultimately, we no longer take ourselves so seriously. Whether the end result is suicide or more of a ritual detachment of humanity from itself by no longer reproducing, we will see. Perhaps we will ask people to finally call it a day. But of course it is not meant to be taken too seriously. I think the title is enough of a trigger warning that people know what it is about.

Does this ultimately mean that all possibilities to stop climate change have been exhausted and we should draw the conclusions from this?

If you look at the last 100 years, since we learned about climate change, not much has happened. And there is not much hope that anything will happen. There are always people who get involved in groups and start individual activities. But I don't see any major change. So we are playing around with this idea of antinatalism, which says that we should no longer reproduce. This is already a topic in some old church teachings, but a philosopher like Schopenhauer also dealt with it. The reference point here is suffering, in view of which it would be better not to be born. And we spin this idea further to the church of self-extinction and consider whether it would not be the right step for humanity to completely wipe itself out - in whatever way.

Can we humans do without at all or is renunciation ultimately just a fashionable attitude?

We are an invasive species that is spreading. That is probably in our core. Otherwise the world would have changed by now. When you watch the news, you can't help but get the impression that we haven't learned anything from the wars, destruction, and all the madness, and that we are perhaps programmed for destruction. In our private lives or at the bottom of a crisis, we are always ready to make changes. But as soon as we have dug ourselves out of the hole a little, our minds start to level out our expectations again. We blame the circumstances and don't see ourselves as part of the problem. We don't feel connected to the bigger picture.

But don't we have a different share in climate change than, for example, other nations?

What we are telling comes from a completely Western discourse. Other people in other parts of the world actually have very little to do with climate change. They have the right to be here because they use far fewer resources and perhaps even live self-sufficiently. We here are totally fueled by capitalism and its consumption of resources. But it would be a bit boring to just go on stage in Brecht style and point out capitalism and the climate crisis.

Save the planet – kill yourself | P: Analog theater / studio stage | TanzFaktur in the Technology Park | 11. - 15.9. | 0221 470 45 13 (studio stage)

Interview: Christoph Zimmermann