AGNUS DEI
Durational performance | June 2024 | Societaetstheater | Dresden
By: FEELINGS and fachbetrieb rita grechen concept team: Jil Dreyer, Hannes Köpke, Josef Mehling, Jasmina Rezig, Julius Zimmermann stage design: Swantje Silber costume design: Olivia Rosendorfer, Julia Scholz video: Julius Zimmermann production management: Helena Bschaden, Marie Samrotzki stage design assistant: Hans Werner costume design intern: Emma Schwarz performers: Misha Alexis Anders, Ann Antidote, Jil Dreyer, Hannes Köpke, Josef Mehling, Lars Neupert, Ferdinand Nowitzky, Jasmina Rezig, Aaron Nora Scherer, Miss Turandot (Yumo Cheng)
Christianity has organized sexuality for thousands of years. What is allowed and what is not. Christianity has forbidden, punished, humiliated. The Agnus Dei order was always different. They did not need an external regulatory authority. They wanted to moan prayers on their knees. The images of the saints were their fantasies for their games with sex and power. Their most sacred rule: consent. They had to hide for a long time - now they can show themselves. "Sing with us. List - your desires, your sins, your wounds. You've come to the right place."
"Agnus Dei" invites the audiance to visit a kinky monastic order. In the rooms of the Societaetstheater Dresden, which have been converted into a holy place, this community shows itself to the outside world for the first time and negotiates with them questions about the connection between sexuality and power in a society that has inherited its values from Christianity.
"Agnus Dei" is a production by fachbetrieb rita grechen and FEELINGS and was co-produced by Societaetstheater in Dresden and Riesa Efau – Kultur Forum Dresden. The project was funded by Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media and by the Office for Culture and Monument Protection of the City of Dresden.
