The Machine Stops - by E. M. Forster

The future: humanity lives underground in a complex of individual residential cells, following a strictly regulated daily schedule. All life is managed and controlled by an all-knowing Machine that directs the entire civilization. Physical needs and social interaction have been reduced to a minimum or abolished entirely. All communication takes place via audio-video transmission; every human action is registered, recorded, and commented on by the Machine. The system is perfect!

In this glass civilization lives Vashti, a music researcher, content with her life and wholly convinced of the system's modernity and functionality - until she receives a disturbing call from her son Kuno: he wants to travel to the Earth's surface, forbidden though it is!

When Vashti finally meets Kuno, he has long since put his plan into action - with catastrophic consequences: his discovery on the surface threatens the system, triggering a chain of events and ultimately severe malfunctions of the life-sustaining Machine...

The system collapses, the Machine stops. Humanity is destroyed. Only Kuno's discovery on the surface holds a glimmer of hope for a fresh start - without the Machine...

A dystopian stage play based on a short story by E.M. Forster from 1909. Forster's fascinating technical vision of the future and his bleak forecast regarding societal development contain a striking topicality...

Adaptation: Hugh G. Lorey
Direction: Anna-Sophie Sattler
Cast: Anja Becker, Marcel Zauner-Wieczorek, Eric Lenke, Judith Nitzschner, Jutta Hoffmann, Tim Rost, Julia Seßar and others
Music: Tommy Steinkopff (Didgeridoo), Anna-Sophie Sattler (Handpan)
Set design: Karl Konrad Koenigs
Costumes and props: noctenytor
Photography: Andreas Kemler