GLORIETTE - LEILA HEKMAT

Welcome to the Gloriette – an offbeat department store on the outskirts of Venice that is slowly sinking into the sea. On offer today and everyday: voluptuous commodities in full bloom. It is here where you will discover blessedly banal mind blowing merchandise that will transform you into a walking collage of unfamiliar glory – ridiculous yet positively vulnerable.

On the invitation of HAU Hebbel am Ufer, visual artist Leila Hekmat makes her institutional theatre debut with “Gloriette”, a musical comedy where baroque opulence turns to anarchy. Featuring original music by Roman Ole and Roman Lemberg composed with electronics and a Baroque-inspired ensemble, and choreography by dancer and choreographer Shade Theret, “Gloriette” is performed by a transdisciplinary ensemble of dancers and performers as an isolated group of employees and customers inhabiting the sinking shop.

As the water slowly rises, the shop employees don’t seem very bothered as they go on tending to their idiosyncratic, highly specialised departments. What are these post-apocalyptic workers holding onto? “Gloriette” is taking us on a tragic yet comical search for desire, belief, self-actualisation and psychic survival in a dying commodified world.

Cast

Text, direction, costumes and scenography: Leila Hekmat / Music: Roman Ole, Roman Lemberg / Choreography: Shade Theret / Performers: Aya Sone, Edith Saldanha, Elena Francalanci, Jette Lona Hermanis, Mara Snip, Mickey Mahar, Roman Lemberg, Roman Ole, Samuel Pereira, Shade Theret, Susanne Sachsse / Music ensemble: Miako Klein, Vanessa Chartrand-Rodrigue, Raivis Misjuns