Treffen junge Szene
Production
ANNE
waltraud900, Forum Freies Theater Düsseldorf
North Rhine-Westphalia
APOLLON - STOP TRYNA BE GOD, waltraud900, Forum Freies Theater Düsseldorf © Christian Knieps
“Masculinity is neither good nor bad – it depends on what we make of it.” The Apollos of today – an ensemble of eleven male-identifying young people aged 15 to 20 from diverse cultural backgrounds – descend from Olympus, take on Zeus, deconstruct male role models and reassemble them anew. Where are the sons of the future heading, and which questions accompany them?
“Zeus never asked me whether I wanted any of this. Do you think you could just grab a cola with him and talk about your feelings? Ask him questions like that?”
The Greek god Apollo appears, at first glance, to embody the ideal of perfect masculinity: otherworldly beauty, strength and power. As an infallible archer and guardian of the Oracle of Delphi, he represents the image of the assertive, potent achiever – a figure that today might readily be discussed under the label of “toxic masculinity”. At the same time, his mythological story is marked by failure, betrayal and deception, revealing unexpected fractures.
APOLLON – STOP TRYNA BE GOD explores masculinity as a cultural inheritance – something that is passed on, restaged and reproduced. Together with the German-Greek collective waltraud900 and the musician and rapper Uğur Kepenek (aka Busy Beast), an ensemble of eleven male-identifying young people aged 15 to 20, from diverse cultural backgrounds, has developed a performance that moves between myth and the present.
The Apollos of today fall in love with Daphne once more, confront Zeus, defeat the Python, descend from Olympus, deconstruct male role models and piece them back together anew. Which narratives still hold today? Which are beginning to shift? Where are the sons of the future heading, and what questions accompany them?
These questions were explored through workshops and discussions, in both German and Greek, and above all through an interdisciplinary approach combining music, dance and theatre.
Jury statement
To be Apollo. To be a god. To want to be a god? To be a god becomes a symbol of the privilege of patriarchal power: the power to make decisions in one’s own interest, to be recognised as a matter of course, to have one’s voice count and be heard. In mythology, being a god means to protect and to punish, to grant and to take without restraint. Of course Apollo killed the Python, of course he rebelled against his father Zeus, of course he pursued Daphne until she transformed into a laurel tree. A role model?
The production APOLLON – STOP TRYNA BE GOD does not reject this idea with a simple counter-image, but with a polyphonic interrogation. Drawing on mythology, pop culture and personal experience, the performers explore different concepts of masculinity – between attribution, expectation and lived reality. “Masculinity is neither good nor bad – it depends on what we make of it,” as one of them puts it.
Out of chaos, order emerges; the Oracle of Delphi becomes a stage for male self-questioning – a gateway that is both promise and challenge. Who is allowed to pass through it? Who wants to? And what awaits on the other side? Silver balls, body imagery, songs, choreographed group scenes and recurring wreaths condense into a precise theatrical language in which pathos, humour and vulnerability coexist.
The production moves beyond a straightforward critique of “toxic masculinity”, instead bringing its contradictions into sharp relief: the need for role models and the fear of resembling them; the longing for strength and the exhaustion of constant self-optimisation; fathers who love without being able to say it, and sons searching for different images.
“What kind of god are you?” – from this question, the evening unfolds. APOLLON – STOP TRYNA BE GOD translates a reflection on masculinity into striking images and multiple perspectives, making visible just how urgently this question must be asked anew today. It is also an attempt to offer something to the next generation: the possibility of questioning given roles, finding one’s own path and not simply inheriting what has been laid out before.
Saskia Neuthe and Rieke Oberländer
By and with
Gustav Becker, Bowen Gao, Nuragha Gasimov, Tasos Geraidis, Amin Hubricht, Simon Karol Gabriel Ilga, Uğur Kepenek, Anton Schebesta, Andreas Spektorov, Zhengli Wang, Timo Walek, Fabio Wilson, Juri Win Wintersig
Nuragha Gasimov, Andreas Spektorov, Zhengli Wang, Juri Win Wintersig – Live-Musik
waltraud900 – Idea and artistic direction
Bianca Künzel – Direction
Phaedra Pisimisi – Choreography
Bianca Künzel, Dorle Trachternach – Text
Dorle Trachternach – Dramaturgy
Ria Papadopoulou – Equipment
Linda Bockholt – Music and musical direction
Uğur Kepenek aka Busy Beast – Texts/Rap
Theo Gatzka – Production Assistant
Mohammed Marouf Alhassan – Choreography assistant
Katrin Wiesemann – Production direction
Julius Kindermann, Eckehard Merholz – Lighting
Thorsten Runge – Sound
Forum Freies Theater Düsseldorf und Theater im Pumpenhaus Münster – Co-production partners