So many adventures couldn’t happen today
So many songs we forgot to play
So many dreams swinging out of the blue
We’ll let them come true
    - Alphaville

It’s gotten late, and suddenly a song comes on—your song! A dam bursts in your head, and feelings and euphoria flood over you. Finally! You’re taking off! Hardly any other cultural product can stir up such emotions as music. Whether at a concert, on a car ride, or alone in your bedroom—the shared and deeply personal feelings we’ve experienced through music are etched into our souls. At the same time, pop music in particular is often perceived as superficial art, and when an emotionally charged hit is played in the theater, it’s not uncommon for it to be ironic. vorschlag:hammer have been telling stories at the stage’s front for 16 years, and now it’s time for a break: Gesine, Stephan, and Kristofer are treating themselves to the emotions of pop for a production. In the dance school of their youth, they set up the show stairs and stage a concert featuring some of the biggest hits. Through at least 10 songs—from System of a Down and Adele to Rondo Venziano—the three explore the question of how and when good entertainment succeeds. Will they manage to create an evening that is magical? They draw on grand moments and small gestures from the canon of pop culture or a personal, late-night drive. They try to move the audience and indulge in the theater of embarrassment. The ultimate goal: catharsis. With pathos and melancholy, they celebrate what is, what was, and what could have been. They sing power ballads and play devil’s violins, perform standard dances, sit at the drums, and play Power Metal. Somewhere between a concert and a music video, a TV show, dance theater, and the gentle exuberance of rocking out in your own living room, they strive to connect with themselves and the audience in a genuine and honest way, while also allowing themselves moments of awkwardness. A pop evening brimming with emotion, seeking infinity and shared moments of freedom and detachment.

vorschlag:hammer have been developing theater productions as a collective since 2009. In recent years, their performative narrative theater has opened up to a wide variety of aesthetic strategies, to visual-atmospheric or body-oriented works. They freely adapt existing material or develop research-based productions on ever new topics.