THE GORKI POSTER

Stages - photographic narratives


Having successfully collaborated for several years already with Ballhaus Naunynstrasse, Esra Rotthoff was asked to pitch her concept for the soon-to-be-reopened Maxim-Gorki-Theater in the heart of Berlin on Unter den Linden. The Gorki is the smallest and most beautiful of Berlin’s state theatres, and its new artistic director, Shermin Langhoff, had come up with a striking new concept for multicultural theatre as a public space; a contemporary reflection of today’s human condition and our conflict of identity. 

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Stages

In this series, Esra developed photographic narratives for each play, staging scenes that reflect in sometimes cheeky, sometimes consciously referential ways the types of people and experiences that make up contemporary Berlin, creating a photographic reinterpretation of the theatrical subjects.

For Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard, for example, she juxtaposed the contrasting ideas of an idyllic garden and family scenes with a lone woman in a virginal white dress stained by vomited blood-red cherries. 

The protagonists were frequently staged with the sky visible in the background in various locations across Berlin, furthering the idea of the city itself as a stage and the sky as “bluescreen” of sorts, a consistent backdrop from which the figures pop out in sharp relief.

The images were used by the theatre as posters and billboards that spoke to the city, galvanizing dialogue and interaction between the theatre and a wide range of Berliners by birth or choice.

THE POSTERS

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photos

 

schwimmen_lernen_highres_rgb Kopie

uebergangsgesellschaft_highres_rgb

gorki_woyzeck_300dpi

Der_Russe_highres_rgb Kopie
kirschgarten_ruth_highres_rgb Kopie

header_mania Kopie

gorki_nibelungen Kopie

mr-sloane_presse Kopie

onkel_wanja_72_dpi Kopie

die_ungehaltenen_72dpi Kopie

schnee_72_dpi Kopie
liederabend_sesede Kopie

angst_essen_seele_auf_final

small_town_boy_FUERlepo Kopie

verruecktes_blut_f39 Kopie

zement_favorit3 Kopie

aufstand_berabeitet Kopie

common_ground_final_layer Kopie

das_sog_draussen_highres_rgb Kopie

kohlhaas_f39L_300 Kopie

kinder_d_sonne_lowres_rgb Kopie

the_situation_300 Kopie

gorki_small_town_boy_300dpi Kopie

musa_dagh_final_anschnitt_300dpi Kopie

 

und_dann_kam_mirna_layer Kopie

wir_zoepfe_f39L_anzeige
the_situation_300 Kopie
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die_ungehaltenen_72dpi Kopie kirschgarten_ruth_highres_rgb Kopie