AMORE

The queer-feminist neo-pop band AMORE have taken on quite a task: they want nothing less than to liberate love from the social-political wreck of the patriarchy. Not leave marriage to the tax advisor. Find out precisely what love feels like in the body and in the mind. Consciously change one’s own desires, collectively unlearn old patterns. Love. Be loved. To find out: love is suffering. Freedom. Intoxication. Work. Biology. Beyond the binary.

With AMORE, long-term member of the Gorki ensemble Aram Tafreshian is presenting his directorial work for the first time at the Gorki Studio. Together with the team & ensemble, he dedicates himself to, as given away by the title of the play and the name of the band in it, the grand theme of love. The ensemble is composed of six students at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts: Jasha Eliah Deppe, Eman Dwagy, Marie Nadja Haller, Via Jikeli, Tim Lanzinger, Emma Zeisberger.

Before the official rehearsal period began, all participants read academic and literary texts, watched films, shared their most embarrassing and beautiful favourite love songs and developed initial theatrical situations and characters, as well as sketches of songs. All of this led to the creation of a play which is a music and photo album at the same time: written by Aram Tafreshian & Team, the songs composed and produced by Anthony Hüseyin & Ensemble. The set and costumes by Mara Pieler both shape the work and take their inspiration from the initial conversations.

In the end what we see on stage is the path of a band called AMORE in four dramatic pictures: from the first time they met to climbing the charts with Ficken ist meine Religion (Fucking Is My Religion). From there into the hell of success in which overwhelming attention from the public, disputes, self-discovery and doubts expand into a multifaceted crisis. Until this question is posed: how can the desire to make music together be reconciled with the friendships and affairs within the group and the relationships beyond it?

Over that whole period the band came up with six songs about the many different facets of love. The full-length versions are all worked into the scenes and present, as sensual monologues, close ups of the characters, just as they imbue with atmosphere the themes negotiated and presented in the play. 

And, this much we can reveal, if there wasn’t a little extra hidden on this album as a bonus track, AMORE would not be AMORE.
 

WATCH THE TRAILER
 

World Premiere on 28/January 2023

Note: The production uses stroboscopic lighting effects, which may have negative effects on light-sensitive viewers.

In cooperation with the acting programme at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts.
 

Photo: Esra Rotthoff
Stage photos: Ute Langkafel