Age is just a number – yet there is no getting around aging. In the midst of debates about the climate movement, identity politics, and body image, it is time to renegotiate long-established generational contracts. Not only has the recent pandemic history shown that questions of responsibility and solidarity need to be revisited.
The performance festival COMING OF AGE is dedicated to various facets of aging in society – and looks at the different challenges of a phenomenon that affects us all.
In premieres, guest performances and discussions, we focus on intergenerational exchange and, at the same time, aim to counteract the invisibility of aging in theatrical, social and political contexts. The festival’s works design alternative models of care, reckon with outdated traditions, rework parental relationships and intergenerational contracts, and rethink elective families and societies. We also take a critical look at the challenges of aging in the performing arts: Why are aging bodies still taboo on stage? Why does the independent scene have the appearance of eternal youth? And what structural changes are needed to sustain aging in theater professions? And what strategies can be used to positively inhabit life and work experience in the context of the performative arts?
The Sophiensæle is getting older as well! As part of our festival, we would like to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Sophiensæle and the 30th edition of the Tanztage Berlin festival with you. On this occasion we will also release our publication Openings, which looks back on the last decade’s discourses and atmospheres of the Freie Szene.
