The dance theater ellaH from Halle and the freie theater nordlichten from Hildesheim have gotten together to discover with scenic means, what this blurry, medical term, in fact circumscripts. Therefore, they have talked to patients, have collected recounts of experiences, that concern the side-effects of antipsychotic drugs, of attempts of therapies in psychiatric clinics and of throbbing feelings of estrangement [...]
But there is another level, a project to undergo the world of words, to find an expression for that, which cannot be said. For while the five performers wear shirts that are knot together like straight-jackets in the back, they do move in painful choreographies to the at times desperate, at times euphoric music of Hannes Scheffler. The team of directors Annett Paschke and Matthias Spaniel find corporeal images for states of minds. The dance positions initially stay in the domain of well-known body expressions, but grow in the course of the one-hour play to always more impressive displays of desperation. While a regular stream of thin black plastic flakes is falling on the scene of the theo, the feeling of vulnerability thickens [...]
This dance theater cannot force tangible knowledge out of the phenomenon of mental illnesses, but creates deep, striking moments of expressivity. Maybe this play wants exactly that: grant a reference to the unavailibilty of the sick. Words are failing, solace also lacks. But there is movement, music, that carries one away, that creates a hold for a few moments, and a connection. The prisoners cannot be liberated. But we are moved.