Eis

Water freezes into ice at temperatures below 0 degrees Celsius. Ice is solid yet, at the same time, ephemeral: as soon as it comes into contact with heat, it melts. It is resilient, indomitable – at once both an archive and an active agent.

On this evening in the theatre, ice becomes the driving force. Stories, bodies and time are stored within it. As it vanishes, hidden layers come to light: relics of past expeditions, preserved lives, suppressed narratives. Who are these ghost that are being brought back to life? Four women gaze upon the ice and grapple with the questions and consequences of disappearance: Who or what vanishes in the ice, and what becomes visible when the ice, in turn, disappears?

In her plays, Chilean theatre artist Manuela Infante often begins with an unconventional thematic premise and uses this as a starting point and structural framework to playfully open up new perspectives. For her first production at the Münchner Kammerspiele, she is joining forces with the ensemble to search for the ghosts beneath the ice – exploring the deep connection between frozen water and the world, history and ourselves.

“All that you touch
you change.
All that you change
changes you.”
– Octavia E. Butler