This is a production of Bertolt Brecht’s learning play “Die Maßnahme” within the video game Minecraft. Conceived during the Covid pandemic, virtual settings were built to stage the performance, which also uses live-action elements.
The piece follows a group of agitators trying to spark a communist revolution in China, where they meet a young comrade who is eager to help them in their plan. On several occasions, the clandestine operation is challenged by conflicting interests between fundamental and pragmatic modes of solidarity.
Brecht’s learning plays were intended to be performed by non-professionals to provoke discussion. It shows how worlds are historically produced and how they could, and can, be different and better. It is less a reflection of, than a reflection on, social reality.
This piece was commissioned for Hybrid Biennale; Hellerau Europäisches Zentrum der Künste, and was presented as a large projection within their building, which we modelled within Minecraft to use as a recurring location within the play.
