War and Peace / puts you in the hands of one of the world’s most notorious theatre collectives, Berlin’s Gob Squad, as they take on one of literature’s most famously unread novels. But this book club might come with a body count.
These theatre renegades make live video performances that unsettle the lines between the prepared and the improvised, performer and bystander, fiction and life. Here they set their sights on Tolstoy’s gargantuan opus War and Peace, only to discover that neither war nor peace are coming without a fight.
A never-ending parade of characters dance, dine and duel while performers prepare for scenes as if going into battle, all in order to reframe Tolstoy’s central inquiry: can we live a moral life in an imperfect world? Are our peaceful lives themselves a kind of warfare?
One man’s feast is another man’s famine, and this / is a feast of contradictions.
"GOB SQUAD SKIP FEARLESSLY ALONG THE THIN LINE BETWEEN FICTION AND REALITY, FILM AND LIVE ACTION LIKE RECKLESS TIGHTROPE WALKERS"
PRODUCTION PARTNERS AND SUPPORTERS
Presented by Malthouse Theatre and Melbourne Festival.
War and Peace is a production by Gob Squad and Münchner Kammerspiele. In coproduction with Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz Berlin, Schauspiel Leipzig, Konfrontacje Teatralne Festival Lublin, Lancaster Arts at Lancaster University, Malthouse Theatre and Melbourne Festival, Gessnerallee Zürich, Nottingham Playhouse and Teatro Stabile di Torino – National Theatre.
Key Image: Andrew Gough
Images: David Baltzer
CONCEPT / | Gob Squad |
PERFORMED & DEVISED BY / | Johanna Freiburg, Sean Patten, Sharon Smith, Berit Stumpf, Sarah Thom, Bastian Trost & Simon Will |
SOUND DESIGN / | Jeff McGrory |
VIDEO DESIGN / | Miles Chalcraft |
SET DESIGN / | Romy Kießling |
COSTUME DESIGN / | Ingken Benesch |
DRAMATURGY & PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT / | Christina Runge |
TECHNICAL MANAGEMENT / | Chris Umney |
ARTISTIC ASSISTANT / | Mat Hand |
GOB SQUAD MANAGEMENT / | Eva Hartmann |
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Event & ticketing details
Accessibility
Dates & Times
PREVIEW | 6.30pm, Tue 18 Oct |
OPENING NIGHT | 7.30pm, Wed 19 Oct |
TIME TO TALK | 6.30pm, Tue 25 Oct |
Location
Merlyn Theatre
The Malthouse, 113 Sturt St, Southbank 3006
Get directionsTrain
Any train to Flinders Street, then a 12-minute stroll through Melbourne’s sparkling Arts Precinct.Tram
The No. 1 South Melbourne tram goes right past our door. Get off at Stop 18. Any tram down St Kilda Road—jump off at Grant Street, Stop 17 and take a 3-minute walk.Event notes
DURATION /
1 hour, 45 minutes (no interval)