Spooky Paradise

Spooky Paradise stands in illuminated letters on scaffolding, as a glaring remnant of a disappeared attraction, in the middle of a wasteland. In Philippe Quesne's new production, the director and visual artist presents a series of peculiar figures, perhaps the last heirs of a circus family. Without their animals and devoid of any acrobatic virtuosity, they strive to keep any business alive.

Are they at an abandoned fair, in a ghost train, or on a movie set? Are these artists simply exhausted, on the verge of disappearing, or are they at the beginning of a possible rebirth?

At the end of Intervista, Federico Fellini's last film, which he shot shortly before the Cinecittà film studios went bankrupt, the Italian director mentions his producer's recurring wish: “A glimmer of hope? Well I don't know... We can try.”

Philippe Quesne, with his sense for the ephemeral, for atmosphere and fantastic everyday life, presents a new work here with a multilingual ensemble of actors and musicians, balancing on the line between utopia and gentle melancholy dystopia.

Spooky Paradise is Philippe Quesne's first work at the Volksbühne am Rosa Luxemburg-Platz. In 2003, he founded his company Vivarium Studio, a loose association of visual artists, actors and musicians, and over the years has become one of France's most important artistic voices. The productions in collaboration with his company have so far been created in cooperation with major European and international festivals and have been performed in numerous countries since the beginning.