FAMILIE FLÖZ

The FAMILIE FLOZ was established in 1994 by a small group of acting and mime students at the Folkwang-Hochschule Essen in Germany, experimenting with masks. In 1996, the original version of "FamilieFloz kommt Uber Tage" was received with great enthusiasm by the press and public and became the group's namesake years later. Over the past 20 years they have toured with five different productions to 27 countries, giving Familie Floz an international reputation for its unique poetic and comic ensemble. "Hotel Paradiso" celebrated its premier in 2006 in seven different locations and has been touring very successfully worldwide ever since. Just recently the show performed a spectacular sold-out run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2015.

Artistic Director /Director: Michael Vogel

Born 1962 in Naila, lives in Berlin. Studied at Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen. Michael Vogel has worked as director for numerous artists, companies and theatres – including Bremer Shakespeare Company, Schauspielhaus Bochum, Theater Strahl Berlin and Gardi Hutter. He taught at Berlin University of the Arts and Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Art, among others. He is director at Familie Flöz, but has also worked as actor, mask builder and stage designer in some plays.

Artistic Director / Mask: Hajo Schüler

Born in Hammelburg, Germany. Trained at Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen. He worked as actor, choreographer and director at several playhouses, including Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Essen Theatre and Philharmonic, Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg, Burgtheater Vienna, Schillertheater NRW, Frankfurt Opera, Centro Cultural Recoleta Buenos Aires and Ballhaus Ost Berlin. His teaching work comprises assignments at the University of the Arts Berlin, the Folkwang University of the Arts Essen, and the State University of Music and the Performing Arts Stuttgart. In addition, he has led numerous seminars on the topics of „mask“ and „play“ since 1996. He is initiator, cofounder and artistic director of Familie Flöz.

Approach

Familie Flöz makes theatre with material that exists, before the need for speech. Every conflict initially manifests itself in the body. Physical conflict is the birth of every dramatic situation. Every production is made in a creative, collective process in which all performers also engage as the authors of their characters and situations. In countless improvisations the group works around its self-chosen theme and collects dramatic material, before the speechless masks come into play. Similar to working with text, the mask brings with it not only a form, but also content. From the development of a mask, into the playful probing and through to the symbiosis of player and mask, the process significantly shapes the result.

The fundamental paradox of the mask – one covers the living face with a rigid form in order to create a living character – is at once compelling and challenging for the actor. But not only for him. The mask comes to life initially in the imagination of the spectator, who in this instant also becomes creator. Sensitive to the spectators responses, and with a critical eye on our own work, all Flöz productions continue to develop and change as they are played and consequently inherit their density and intensity.

Programme: INFINITA

INFINITA is a play about the first and last moments in the puzzle of life and death when the greatest miracles occur: the first appearance in the world, those first brave steps and finally, that first bold fall.

This is a play starring four fabulously masked figures, a very crafty game of shadows and some truly enchanting music. A game of transience, of being born and of growing old. A vigorous succession of scenes about the inevitable fate of the human being. Life itself – that creative force that lets us triumph and fail – plays the star role.

INFINITA is a tangible mosaic of life, simply and virtuously composed; a brief insight into the eternity of birth, sex and death and everything else that is odd. "

Reviews

"It’s a source of never-ending wonder that masks can convey such a myriad of human emotions (…)masterful (…)"

- The Scotsman

"At the end of a performance one could swear that the actors had spoken, laughed and cried. A fascinating experiment in theater that is executed with incredible body control."

- Süddeutsche Zeitung

"Familie who? It’s the Berlin artist collective whose mask theatre is causing furore and selling out theatre houses in the whole world."

- Die Welt

"The public squeals with enthusiasm, people stomp their feet and, when it is all over, they stand on their chairs as if thanking the performers for the gift they have just received. Theater can be magnificent."

- Berliner Zeitung

"The roars of laughter encroaching from every side, whether hysterical howl or drawn-out, knowing sigh, truly were bolts out of the theatre sky, thundering into the hall without advance warning."

- Le Monde

"A creation of great poetic power that will long be remembered."

- El Mundo

"A creation entirely without words yet extraordinarily eloquent, thanks on the one hand to the large, whimsical masks which have made the German theatre company famous throughout the world, and, on the other hand, to that uniquely sophisticated body control able to imbue the rigidity of the masks with an unimaginable array of expression and emotion."

- La Repubblica