Barbican Box

London, 2016/2017
Contribution: Concept & development of the content.

Each year, Barbican/Guildhall Creative Learning commission a theatre artist or company to design and curate the Barbican Box to provide an artistic starting point from which teachers and students devise their own play. This year the box has been curated and created in asso- ciation with Toneelgroep Amsterdam, who have their first residency at the Barbican in 2017, with three productions directed by Ivo van Hove, the company’s Artistic Director.

Gesamtkunstwerk, meaning a total work of art, is the impetus for this year’s Barbican Box and indeed the creative crux of Toneelgroep. The phrase, often associated with Wagner’s Ring Cycle, refers to an ideal work of art where the whole is more than the sum of its indi- vidual parts. Toneelgroep’s actors, dramaturg, scenographer, sound, video and costume designers all work in synergy through the process to create a total theatre experience. Bar- bican asked the question: if they could bottle their process, what would it look like?

Please find the learning resource here, and a blog about the project here.