Gessnerallee
Zürich

For the first time in their 17 years of performance Gob Squad opens the stage for a group of 8-14 year olds. The audience watches them in a sort of a «safe room» or a «laboratory» made of one way mirrored glass, like insects in a jam jar, and watches them grow old. A gentle but strict voice comes through the loudspeakers and reminds them to grow up. The children look into the future – they see themselves as adults – and at the same time they look back in nostalgia at their recent past. In 80 minutes they playfully go through an aging process which we try to delay. Leather jacket, cigarette, sun glasses and endless freedom at 19, sushi dinner parties, a relation in crisis and boring conversations at 40 – at the end even death is enthusiastically performed.
«I can buy a motorcycle and deny my midlife crisis.» – «I can say: I’m close to a burn out.» – «I can begin and end relationships.» – «I can see a therapist.»

«Before Your Very Eyes» has been invited to Theatertreffen 2012. It is the last part of the CAMPO trilogy in which performances with children for a grown up audience were created. (Performance in Dutch with German subtitles)