Two vampires stand close together and look seriously into the audience. They wear black trousers, linen shirts with ruffles and waistcoats with decorations. Their hair is long and unkempt, their fingers long, with long pointed fingernails. Their skin is pale, they have deep circles under their eyes. A sky with dark clouds can be seen in the background.

Two people on a stage, clinging to a pole, they are in the shadows. To the left and right of the pole hang spotlights. In the background there is a printed curtain with a landscape and windmills. The person on the left can be seen from behind, clinging to the pole while kneeling on the ground. The person on the right is standing directly next to it and can be seen from the side. The person grips the pole with both hands and seems to be pulling himself up on it.

Two Flyht Cases with wheels, standing side by side on the stage like coffins. The left box is almost folded shut, an arm and a leg sticking out. The right box is unfolded and a vampire lying in the box stretches his arms out to either side. In the background there is a sky with dark clouds.

Was ihr nicht sehen könnt – Eine Vampirgeschichte

Manuela Infante

Santiago de Chile

Was ihr nicht sehen könnt (“What you can’t see”) takes us down into the underworld: the myth of the vampire has its origins in our fear of illness, which we prefer to keep hidden away from us. Occupying this indeterminate space between life and death, sickness and health, vampires shift between states that appear to be unambiguous.

Manuela Infante is one of the most important Latin American voices, whose political theatre is fuelled by fantasy and musicality in its own unique way. In Was ihr nicht sehen könnt, she explores with a thirst for knowledge the many stories surrounding vampires. Diego Noguera, with whom she shares a longstanding collaboration, is responsible for the sound design in this work, which creates an acoustic focus through voices and sound.

Manuela Infante is a playwright, director, screen writer, and musician. She is known for her approach of staging complex theoretical themes and works with various theatrical strategies through which she criticizes concepts of humanity from a postcolonial and gender-specific perspective. Infante regards theater not only as a space where stories can be told; but as an experimental place where philosophy can be explored. She was a guest at the Festival Theaterformen in 2021 with How to Turn to Stone and most recently in 2022 with Metamorphoses.

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In DGS: Was ihr nicht sehen könnt - Eine Vampirgeschichte

Production credits

Concept, Direction Manuela Infante Concept, Music, Sound Design Diego Noguera With Torben Kessler, Helene Krüger, Nils Rovira-Muñoz Set Design, Light Design Rocío Hernández Costume Design Annabelle Gotha Dramaturgy Camila Valladres, Johanna Vater Assistant Direction Dante Nicolai Lümmen Set Assistant Carolin Gödecke Costume Assistant Rahel Künzi Stage Management Inge Hoffmann Soufflage Martha Jackstien Operator Yvonne Griesel Photos Katrin Ribbe

Co-production by Schauspiel Hannover and Festival Theaterformen.