Körper am Ende der Welt. Ein theatrales Sportstück 2023

Co-production by Theater praesent (Innsbruck) and Maskénada, Neimenster & Mierscher Kulturhaus (Luxembourg)
"Pressure turns dirt into diamonds! Quality comes from agony!
After all, you are here to win, to beat everyone, to make the darkness of this world glitter."
What does it mean for young people who have just left childhood but have not yet arrived in the adult world to be at the mercy of the system of elite sport? Training, performance, control, determination, competition, renunciation, discipline. Success or failure. But also abuse of power.
The topic of mental health among top athletes has made headlines recently. The US gymnast Simon Biles withdrew from competition at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games because the pressure was too high. Tennis player Naomi Ōsaka made her depression and burnout public in 2021. in 2020, the Magglingen protocols went through the media: several former cadre athletes reported intimidation, humiliation and abuse at the Swiss Gymnastics Federation's National Performance Centre in media articles.
"We are children when we start and we just want to enjoy this sport. But slowly it turns into this dark spot in our lives that gets bigger and bigger, and we wonder how that could happen, but we also wonder in general, because we're in puberty, who we are and who we want to be, we're insecure and fragile."
Nia Dennis (US rhythmic gymnast, her comeback routine in 2021 went viral online)
Theatre-maker Marion Rothhaar was German champion in rhythmic gymnastics in her younger years and an Olympic participant for the then FRG in 1988. Her experiences as well as reports from other top athletes and media reports are interwoven with Regina Dürig's text "Body at the End of the World", which she wrote for the play based on the Magglingen Protocols. Poetic, rhythmic, gentle - the drastic nature of growing up against the background of top-class sport is brought to the stage in a broad polyphony under the direction of Elke Hartmann.
Bodies at the End of the World
by Regina Dürig & Marion Rothhaar
with: Marion Rothhaar, Rahel Jankowski and Sophia Cirabisi / Romana Nagler
Concept and idea: Marion Rothhaar
Text: Regina Dürig and Marion Rothhaar
Director: Elke Hartmann
Dramaturgy and production management: Michaela Senn
Set design/stage: Katharina Ganner
Videos: Marco Friedrich Trenkwalder
Assistance and theatre pedagogy: Laetitia Lang
Public relations: Michaela Senn and Julia Jenewein
Graphics: Carmen Sulzenbacher
Tickets: https://www.brux.at/produktionen/koerper-am-ende-der-welt/