Unlocking Paradise

Paradise – fulfilled, a utopia or a construct? In Unlocking Paradise a Sinti:zze-Rom:nja dance company, an international choir with roots in the Middle East and a  transgenerational theatre group enter into a dialogue. Accompanied by one actor and two musicians, they tell their story (or stories). Personal biographies, notions of paradise and poetic texts are interwoven in a polyphonic fabric. Experiences, memories, dreams and desires are considered alongside each other on equal terms, offering glimpses into people’s lives. This associative piece of theatre, devised by Tomasz Prasqual and directed by Ivo Van Hove, presents the Ruhr region in its diversity. It creates space for more thorough intercultural dialogue and enables little utopias to be created that can provide light and hope in dark times. Not in theory, but in practice, by acting together and developing.