Pandora’s DropBox

In Pandora’s DropBox Katja Heitmann presents the perfect human in a perfect world. A world in which all misery has been put back into Pandora’s box. Six performers are on a mission to maintain balance at all times. Every movement is made with tremendous care. Every conflict has to be avoided. Every action should maintain or even increase the harmony of the composition. Can a human being become a perfectly conditioned machine? Is there such a thing as a ‘correct choreography?’ Is theatre still theatre when there is no conflict? Can you be sad about the loss of sadness? Pandora’s DropBox is a serene and catastrophic quest for the limits of human control.

Reviews:

Theaterkrant **** Pandora’s DropBox, Wendy Lubberding

Plato, Nietzsche, Hannah Arendt, care robots, YouTube vloggers: they all ask what it means to be human. Katja Heitmann joins in this list with a research that makes you feel how hard it is to be is human.

Volkskrant **** Pandora; s DropBox, Mirjam van der Linden

Snot, sweat and tears are also not choreographed. Heitmann’s robotic people become pitiful in a very subte way. That ambiguity is significant and very beautiful. Here people dance imprisoned in their body and ambitions.

NRC Pandora’s DropBox, Francine van der Wiel

(…) the iron concentration of the six dancers on the hexagonal playing surface gets the viewer in the grip. (…) So lamentable and lonely is perfection. This is how the distorted songs “Ich bin allein in meinem Himmel” sound as well. Perfection can not tolerate feelings.

concept, choreography
Katja Heitmann

concept, soundscape, light
Sander van der Schaaf

performers
Celine Werkhoven, Lorenzo Capodieci, Anna Zurkirchen, Merle Schiebergen, Hannah Rogerson, Wies Berkhout, Eleni Ploumi, Tommy Pham (intern), Julia van Rooijen (intern), Rebecca Collins, Manou Koreman

online GIF and video-installation
Wild And Thorny

costumes
By vanHarten, Annemarije van Harten

dramaturgy and publication ‘Anti-Tragic’
Ingrid de Rond

co-production
DansBrabant (NL), tanzhaus nrw (DE), SPRING (NL), STRP Biënnale (NL)

supported by
Fonds Podiumkunsten, PLAN Noord Brabant

partners
Workspace Brussels, Theaterfestival Boulevard, Fontys Dance Academy, Het Huis Utrecht