novoflot: The Fifth Season, First »Dicker Dienstag« in Cologne

The Berlin opera company Novoflot is reinventing the spirit of Carnival! Amid zany sleepwalking performances, philharmonic carnival hypnosis, film screenings in public spaces, and the opening celebrations of Cologne’s “First Fat Tuesday,” the Fifth Season transforms into a steaming primordial soup of musical theater, from which a carnival society of the future, endowed with magical powers, emerges. Carnival is a vehicle for otherworldly discourse, a means to express oneself beyond conventional rhetoric and, through masks and costumes, to let tomorrow’s reflection follow today’s laughter. Historically speaking, these few days once a year offered the opportunity to speak the truth beyond the bounds of law and morality without being punished for it. Afterward, it was all over. And in today’s world, where trivial matters are punished while large-scale criminal schemes go unpunished, this is particularly acute. This overarching project was developed out of this need. Novoflot creates art, not a demonstration, but these ideas are woven throughout.