Hosted by the VOLKSBÜHNE Berlin’s Series “Armen Avanessian & Enemies” at ROTER SALON, NEXT WAVES THEATER began with a manifesto which called for re-evaluation of the digital and theatrical. Initiated by ARMEN AVANESSIAN and curated by SELIN DAVASSE, TILMAN HECKER, BELLE SANTOS, the series presented projects which found frameworks in various online spaces, variously grappling with resources, notions of territory, and showcasing the hyper-flexibility of technological exploitation, sinister or sincere. The finale of the programme sees a collaboration from the series’ initiators, directly juxtaposing conceits of the ‘old’ and ‘new’.

For HÉ BIEN ! LA GUERRE. SELIN DAVASSE freely adapts CHODERLOS DE LACLOS’ Dangerous Liaisons, placing excerpts from the towering epistolary novel against the sharp, libidinal email missives of KATHY ACKER and MCKENZIE WARK. Aggressing gender and power in fixed class structures, this operatic sketch continues the stage partnership of director TILMAN HECKER and composer BIRKE BERTELSMEIER, who first worked with onstage video as compositional technique in QUERELLE (DEUTSCHE OPER TISCHLEREI, 2014). Videographer SILKE BRIEL’S images fall into the installation-like setting, with BELLE SANTOS’ weaving of archival pieces with contemporary clothes colliding and layering references to Hollywood adaptations. Filmed over four days with the collaboration of the VOLKSBÜHNE, HÉ BIEN ! LA GUERRE. is a study towards an evening length project.