Stephan Stock
Theater der Peinlichkeit
A visit at home, my mother asks me how I am, I don’t know what to answer. She owns a gym that doesn’t go well. She asks: ‘Would you do promo for me dressed as your inner demon?ʼ I say yes and stand there in a demon costume on the market square. Everything is better than speaking about oneself. Everything is easier than a conversation.”
Embarrassing moments are honest moments. They are moments of weakness that don’t conform to what society expects of us. And this is despite the fact that we are all basically weird loners with weird preferences who should feel connected much more often. Because what exactly is embarrassing? Theater der Peinlichkeit (Theater of Embarrassment) wants to be touching – at points where we save ourselves by laughing or where we can’t help turning away. It guides us to an encounter with ourselves and others, to that moment when we recognise the beauty of being ashamed and are truly delighted.
Stephan Stock studied acting in Bern and Zurich. He is a member and co-founder of the group vorschlag:hammer and the paradoxical collective neue Dringlichkeit. The later performs political theatre and Actionism in Zurich, curated the festival Let’s talk about Money, Honey and presented the piece Neue Männlichkeit (New Manlihood) ‒ both at Gessnerallee Zurich. Stephan Stock is also involved with the network cobratheater.cobra.
Created by Stephan Stock Production management Miriam Walther Kohn
Funded by the City of Zurich’s Cultural Department, Migros Kulturprozent and Pro Helvetia Schweizer Kulturstiftung. Special thanks to the team of Gessnerallee, Linda Sepp, Anna-Sophie Fritz, Lina Hoppe, neue Dringlichkeit, vorschlag:hammer and cobratheater.cobra.
Festival pass € 40 full price/€ 25 reduced/€ 20* with the brutkarte
Day pass € 18 full price/€ 12 reduced/€ 10* with the brutkarte
Single ticket € 14 full price/€ 8 reduced/€ 6* with the brutkarte
On 15 November is brut part of the European Theater Night. "Pay as you wish" is valid for the performances Mohrle and Theater der Peinlichkeit.