Teatro Dramaturgy: Hajo Schueler @ Edfringe 2016

Familie Flöz presents

TEATRO DELUSIO

The art of saying everything without a single word

• Familie Flöz returns to the Pleasance after 2015’s sell out success HOTEL PARADISO
• World leading mask theatre specialist Familie Flöz presents TEATRO DELUSIO, 12 years after its acclaimed Festival Fringe premiere. 
• The show takes over The Pleasance’s biggest stage in The Grand between 3 and 29 of August.
• Theatre in a theatre, TEATRO DELUSIO tells the story of three stage technicians fighting for their own happiness behind the scenes.
Familie Flöz TEATRO DELUSIO trailer from F.F. on Vimeo.

Established in 1994, Familie Flöz - Essen-originated and now Berlin-based physical theatre company - brings back their 2004 sell-out show TEATRO DELUSIO to this year’s Fringe to take over the biggest stage at The Pleasance for almost four weeks. The show is back on tour by popular demand after a four year break. This is Familie Flöz’s fourth visit to the Fringe, following the sell-out success of Hotel Paradiso in 2015. 

From the world’s leading mask theatre specialist comes TEATRO DELUSIO, a dark comedy revolving around three stage technicians whose lives, usually hidden, take centre stage as the glamorous world of pretence blends with the down to earth life backstage in this silent show. 

The efficient Bob is young, strong and unpredictable; the chronically tired and sickly Bernd is constantly bossed around and the idle, always hungry Ivan is permanently anxious not to lose control over the shows. This fantastic ensemble excels in breath-taking fighting scenes, deadly intrigues and heart-breaking arias of world-famous plays. 


Hajo Schueler, artistic director of Familie Flöz and author of Teatro Delusio :


What was the inspiration for this performance?
A funny story: We had a day off on a tour in Italy. in In the last evening we had a look at the theatre where we were supposed to perform the next night.

It was empty, except for a group of technicians and stage hands who prepared an event on stage. We were sitting in the dark and observed them working, for hours! It was so extraordinary, rich and funny, absurd and poetic, that we decided immediately to create a play around and about three technicians!

How did you go about gathering the team for it?
The team is the leading force in all our productions. I think FAMILIE FLÖZ attracts performer that really want to contribute to the story and to get involved in many aspects of the creation and the play.


How did you become interested in making performance?
The clown and the mask where the tools of our „coming out“ as  performers.



Was your process typical of the way that you make a performance?
Yes, we created hours and hours of material. We got lost in absurd improvisations and week before the first night we didn’t have a play yet.

The opening show went very well and we changed a lot with/through the feed-backs and reactions of the audience during the show. Our plays usually take shape very late in the creation process. But then, every detail is worked out with great precision. The masks request that.


What do you hope that the audience will experience?
Our play is a homage to theatre. We show what usually is invisible to audiences. Doing this, we want to tell something about what theatre is to us: A place where the power of imagination is celebrated. And of course as always in our show, we want the audience to experience the magic of the mask: a fixed object that in the imagination of the spectator start to move, laugh and cry...

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?
The mask can be a brilliant and fascinating tool for that. A mask can speak to us without a word, but yet in a very precise manner. A mask is like a screen, where the audience project a movie in real-time.

Do you see your work within any particular tradition?
Masks of course do have a very old and a very universal tradition. But rarely they are really the focus or the centre in today's productions.

Which is a pity, I think, because they can be such a powerful tool.


Familie Flöz is one of Europe’s most prolific touring theatre companies: with over 150 shows per year, they have performed in 34 countries worldwide. TEATRO DELUSIO premiered in the Arena Berlin in 2004 and toured South America, Asia and Europe.



Teatro Delusio
The Grand at The Pleasance
75 minutes
Previews: 3-5 August at 1.45pm (first review date 5 August)
Performances: 6-29 August at 1.45pm