Under water theatre
(2023)

• Ulla von BRANDENBURG

During a residency in Amiens, France, in 2022 Ulla von Brandenburg was inspired by the city’s century’s old tradition of marionette theatre, a type of theatre staged in untraditional public spaces to mock the rich and powerful. In Underwater theatre six actors, who regularly appear in von Brandenburg’s works, engage in a Brechtian play with marionette puppets acting as body-doubles.

Von Brandenburg’s recasting of this theatrical tradition in a deep-sea setting draws inspiration from the French writer, playwright and poet Jules Verne, who died in Amiens in 1905, and his novel ‘Vingt Mille Lieues sous les mers’ (Twenty Thousand Leagues under The Seas). The marionettes sing in English, French and German, welcoming us, the audience into their hopes for a utopic future and aspirations for living, working and love. The hand-painted backdrop of the underwater scene is presented as part of the installation, bringing the film’s narrative and its setting into our collective experience.