FINALE

FAMILIE FLÖZ is celebrating its 30th anniversary with a world premiere!

What once began as a small experiment has grown into a widely traveled and acclaimed troupe of theater artists. FAMILIE FLÖZ has revitalized the art of mask theater and has been telling wordless stories for decades. They find the big in the small: in the tragicomic failures of lovingly drawn characters.

But there is another core element to FAMILIE FLÖZ’s work—the audience.

That’s why FAMILIE FLÖZ begins their new play not just in, but with the audience. The question they’re often asked—where exactly do the bizarre characters in their wordless stories come from?—becomes a hands-on experiment.

Welcome to the birth canal! Inanimate objects become living characters. How does that actually work? How does a story begin? What does it reveal about the narrator? What happens between the stage and the audience? And who are we when we wear a mask?

In FAMILIE FLÖZ’s new play, three small universes emerge from nothing, in which the Flöz characters go about their everyday concerns. Three stories, held together by a narrator who is as wordless as she is elusive.

The owner of a late-night convenience store in the city, who—true to the motto “I don’t cost a thing”—sacrifices himself for the needs of his diverse clientele. But he doesn’t run his business without risk. Bit by bit, his own story comes to light.

His mother’s illness throws the son off course. The hospital becomes the focal point of an identity crisis.

A young woman seeks meaning in life in harmony with nature. But her seemingly idyllic life in a remote forest cabin harbors dark secrets.

Three people are at turning points in their lives. Certainties they thought were secure are crumbling. Abysses are opening up. Who will save them?

FINALE (an overture) is FAMILIE FLÖZ’s tribute to its audience after 30 years together.