Animeo & Humania Animation Theater

Animation theatre by Theater Marie (Aarau) and François Chalet (Zurich)

What does a flirt between a human being and an animated character look like? Actress and animated being romance each other and fall for the temptation of otherness, the desire to win over the counterpart.

Theatre cannot do without the here and now, without the physical presence of performers in real time. Animation, on the other hand, is a slow process that takes place in a studio without an audience and only turns into a completed film for the public after much elaborate editing. The combination of these two art forms, which could not be more contrary, has resulted in a unique evening of theatre.

The situation at the beginning of the story: Humania voices Animeo who was drawn for an animated ‘Romeo and Juliet’ film. The human and the animated being, the film character and his voice, now meet live on stage. Both interact, communicate, fall in love with each other.

On a visual level, the interaction succeeds by means of a Kinect camera that records the movements of Humania (Lina Hoppe), enabling her to enter the two-dimensional world of Animeo.

Swiss Theater Marie developed the play ‘Animeo & Humania’ together with animation filmmaker François Chalet, interaction designer Michael Flückiger and actress Lina Hoppe.

In addition, an accompanying exhibition entitled ‘Elementarteilchen’ (‘Elementary Particles’) is being realised in cooperation with Stadtbibliothek Stuttgart, Galerie b (6 April to 28 May 2022). Scenes from the world of Animeo are shown on 16 screens, and visitors can slip into Humania’s role themselves and meet Animeo.