All right. Good night.

A play about disappearance and loss

By Helgard Haug mit Musik von Barbara Morgenstern

MH370 was a scheduled international passenger flight operated by Malaysia Airlines.
On March 8, 2014, the Boeing with 227 passengers and 12 crew members took off from Kuala Lumpur to its destination Beijing: an unspectacular routine for 39 minutes and 13 seconds. Then the plane disappeared from radar.
 
Its disappearance has been called one of the greatest aviation mysteries of all time - because it seems unbelievable that something as big as a Boeing could be lost in a world where presumably everything and everyone is under surveillance.
And it seems impossible that it remains lost. Although the search has been the most expensive in history, at over 150 million euros, and of monumental proportions.
 
Shortly after the disappearance of the plane, the father of the author and director writes his grandson four congratulatory letters for his birthday. Their content is almost identical; each envelope is stamped with a special issue stamp. A year later, no card arrives at all, the birthday probably forgotten, and at some point this forgetfulness gets a name and becomes a disease: dementia. The grandchild's name is forgotten, the fact that there is one, and eventually the certainty of one's own person.
 
In 'All right. Good night.' Helgard Haug traces the disappearance, the search and the struggle with uncertainty - using the example of the missing airplane and the manifesting dementia of her own father. It is the protocol of an irreversible process.
 
Music is the artistic medium with the greatest tradition in making the disappeared tangible. Be it through a requiem in memory of the deceased or through a choir, which already in ancient theatre appeared as a witnessing chronicler and reported on hardly imaginable battles and divine fortune. For “All right. Good night.”, the electro-pop musician Barbara Morgenstern collaborates with arranger Davor Vincze, and composes for a classical orchestra for the first time. Will the 12 musicians of the Zafraan Ensemble succeed in making the gap and the ensuing emptiness tangible?
 
The theatre is the place of visualization, presence and liveness. Or also A-Liveness. Every stage event is permeated with liveness. The audience can be reassured second by second: These bodies here on stage are there for me, this voice speaks to me - now, in this moment. We share this very moment, here, in one space - this reality.
But: What happens to the theatre when the implicitness of human presence disappears in a performance?
What remains then?
Only thoughts and memory? The naked theatre apparatus? The music?
 
Concept, text, direction: Helgard Haug
Composition: Barbara Morgenstern
Orchestra: Zafraan Ensemble
Hands: Johannes Benecke, Mia Rainprechter
Speaker: Emma Becker, Evi Filippou, Margot Gödrös, Ruth Reinecke, Mia Rainprechter, Louise Stölting
Stage: Evi Bauer
Video/Light design: Marc Jungreithmeier
Sound design: Peter Breitenbach
Conductor: Premil Petrović
Arranger: Davor Branimir Vincze
Dramaturgy: Juliane Männel 
Outside Eye: Aljoscha Begrich
Technichal direction: Andreas Mihan
Technichal direction touring: Martin Schwemin
Artistic collaboration: Lisa Homburger
Costume and artistic collaboration stage design: Christine Ruynat
Sound Design Assistant: Rozenn Lièvre
Assistant Technical direction: David Scholz
Production management: Louise Stölting
 
Zafraan Ensemble musicians stage:

Matthias Badczong (clarinet), Evi Filippou (percussion), Josa Gerhard (violin), Martin Posegga (saxophone), Beltane Ruiz (double bass)

Zafraan Ensemble musicians recording:
Josa Gerhard (violin), Noa Niv (trombone), Matthias Badczong (clarinet), Liam Mallet (flute), Martin Posegga (saxophone), Damir Bacikin (trumpet), Anna Viechtl (harp), Adam Weisman (drums), Evi Filippou (drums), Yumi Onda (violin), Benedikt Bindewald (viola recording), Maria Reich (viola), Alice Dixon (cello), Natalie Plöger (double bass), Florian Juncker (trombone)

 
A production of Rimini Apparat. In co-production with HAU Hebbel am Ufer (Berlin), Volkstheater Wien, Factory International for Manchester International Festival, Künstlerhaus Mousonturm, PACT Zollverein.
Funded by Hauptstadtkulturfonds as well as Berliner Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa.
 
 
Performing rights: schaefersphilippen Theater and Medien GbR
Music rights: Barbara Morgenstern © Maobeat Musikverlag/Budde Music Publishing GmbH
 
Nominated for the Friedrich-Luft-Preise 2022 
 
Invited to                                                             Invited to
 
                                       
 
 
Invited to
 
                   
 
 

Dates

Berlin, HAU Hebbel am Ufer
16. – 21.12.2021
Vienna, Volkstheater
30. – 31.03.2022
Berlin, HAU Hebbel am Ufer, im Rahmen des Berliner Theatertreffens
13. – 14.05.2022
Mülheim, 47. Mülheimer Theatertage
19.05.2022
Essen, PACT Zollverein, eine Kooperationsveranstaltung von IMPULSE Theater Festival und PACT Zollverein.
14. – 15.06.2022
Frankfurt/Main, Künstlerhaus Mousonturm
21. – 23.09.2022
Ludwigshafen, Festspiele Ludwigshafen
06. – 07.12.2022
Chur, Theater Chur
09.02.2023
Beijing, Screening@Tianqiao Performing Arts Centre
19.03.2023
Hannover, Kunstfestspiele Herrenhausen
26. – 27.05.2023
Manchester, MIF
06. – 08.07.2023
Zurich, Zürcher Theaterspektakel
27. – 29.08.2023
Santiago de Chile, Santiago a Mil
11. – 13.01.2024
Berlin, HAU Hebbel am Ufer
08. – 11.02.2024
Taichung, National Taichung Theater
24. – 26.05.2024
Strasbourg, Théâtre national de Strasbourg
27. – 28.09.2024
Current dates / All dates

Infosheet

Audio / Video

Video - Documentation
All right. Good night. (Trailer)

Your cookie settings do not allow embedding content from Vimeo. You can review your settings here.

Video - Documentation
All right. Good night. (Documentation)

Your cookie settings do not allow embedding content from Vimeo. You can review your settings here.

Audio - Review
DEUTSCHLANDFUNK KULTUR / FAZIT / 16.12.21 / Tobi Müller

Audio - Review
Einbruch der Wirklichkeit – Dokumentartheater / Der Theaterpodcast / 13.12.23

Video - TV-Feature
In the studio // MIF 2023

Your cookie settings do not allow embedding content from Vimeo. You can review your settings here.

Audio - Review
"All right. Good night": Theaterstück über Demenz von Helgard Haug // NDR à la Carte

+ More media

Press comments

All Right. Good Night. review – extraordinary show about dementia and a disappearing plane
Arifa Akbar
07.07.2023 / The Guardian

All right. Good night.
David Chadderton
06.07.2023 / British Theatreguide

‘Gone, but still here’: how vanished flight MH370 is reflected in a father’s dementia
Natasha Tripney
15.05.2023 / The Guardian

You’re here, or maybe you’re gone
Janis El-Bira
17.12.2021 / nachtkritik.de

A Flight into the Dark
PATRICK WILDERMANN
17.12.2021 / https://www.tagesspiegel.de/

+ More articles

Foreign language press

Im März 2014 ist die Maschine MH370 spurlos verschwunden. Das Flugzeugunglück ist Thema eines Theaterstücks über Verlust und Erinnerung
Bernd Noack
24.08.2023 / nzz

Wie ist es, wenn Menschen verschwinden?
Ronald Meyer-Arlt
06.05.2023 / Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung

Vom Verschwinden
NICOLE SPERK
03.12.2022 / Die Rheinlandpfalz

Theater als Seismograf der Verluste
Andreas Reckwitz
17.05.2022 / nachtkritik

Der Vater und das verlorene Flugzeug
Patrick WIldermann
06.05.2022 / Tagesspiegel

Jetzt bin ich weg
Christina Böck
01.04.2022 / Wiener Zeitung

Der Flug einer Boing und das Leben des Vaters als ein langes "Fade-out"
Thomas Trenkler
01.04.2022 / Kurier

Bleibende Eindrücke vom Verschwinden
Michael Wurmitzer
01.04.2022 / Der Standard

Musik und Übertitel: All right. Good night. im Volkstheater
31.03.2022 / APA

All right. Good night.
30.03.2022 / Oe1.orf.at, 30.03.

Wenn Papa vom Radar verschwindet
Wolfgang Kralicek
23.03.2022 / Falter

Rimini Protokoll: Die Wirklichkeit liefert immer noch das beste Theater
Bernd Noack
27.12.2021 / https://www.nzz.ch/

Reisen ins Nichts
Doris Meierhenrich
20.12.2021 / Berliner Zeitung

Das Verschwinden
Andreas Montag
18.12.2021 / Mitteldeutsche Zeitung

Vlucht naar de duisternis
Patrick Wildermann
17.12.2021 / www.tagesspiegel.de

Je bent hier, maar misschien ook weg
Janis El-Bira
17.12.2021 / nachtkritik.de

Du bist hier, vielleicht aber auch fort
Janis El-Bira
17.12.2021 / https://nachtkritik.de/

Tu es là, mais peut-être aussi ailleurs
Janis El-Bira
17.12.2021 / nachtkritik.de

Destination les ténèbres
PATRICK WILDERMANN
17.12.2021 / tagesspiegel.de

Sei qui, ma forse anche lì
Janis El-Bira
17.12.2021 / nachtkritik.de

Salto nel buio
PATRICK WILDERMAN
17.12.2021 / tagesspiegel.de

Você está aqui, mas talvez tenha partido
Janis El-Bira
17.12.2021 / nachtkritik.de

Voo para a escuridão
PATRICK WILDERMANN
17.12.2021 / tagesspiegel.de

Vuelo hacia la oscuridad
PATRICK WILDERMANN
17.12.2021 / tagesspiegel.de

Estás aquí, pero quizá ya te has ido
Janis El-Bira
17.12.2021 / nachtkritik.de

Ты здесь, но, возможно, тебя уже нет.
Янис Эль-Бира
17.12.2021 / nachtkritik.de

Полет в темноту
ПАТРИК ВИЛЬДЕРМАНН
17.12.2021 / .tagesspiegel.de/

Flug in die Dunkelheit
PATRICK WILDERMANN
17.12.2021 / https://www.tagesspiegel.de/

+ More articles

Theoretical Texts

PAJ: Singing in Dark Times – Report from Berlin
Matt Cornish
26.10.2022 / https://direct.mit.edu/pajj/article/44/3%20(132)/3/112853/Singing-in-Dark-Times-Report-from-Berlin