2022 THE DEAD CLASS

set design for THE DEAD CLASS, at WUK performing arts (Vienna/A), directed by Yosi Wanunu

Students/Singers: Vladimir Cabak (Student No.5), Johannes Deckenbach (Student No.2), Tobias Resch (Student No. 1), Jonas Tonnhofer (Student No. 3), Marko Trajkovski (Student No. 4) Teacher: Markus Zett
Live Band: Susanne Gschwendtner (voc, perc), Boris Hauf (ts, p, keys), Simon Usaty (g, bjo), Martin Siewert (g, electronics), Michael Strohmann (b), Didi Kern (dr, perc)
Composed by: Martin Siewert
Set design: Paul Horn
Video: Michael Strohmann
Light design: Daniel Biegger
Technical Production: Richard Gross
Assistanz Director: Katharina Höltermann
Written and directed by: Yosi Wanunu
Produced by Kornelia Kilga

Coproduced by WUK performing arts, Vienna/ Jan 10 – 16, 2022

A musical

The Dead Class is an anti-musical about anti-heroes. It is built around a rogue’s gallery of infamous young men who killed their classmates, their peers, their teachers, and any bystander that stood in their way. But we don’t use their names or their stories. We are interested in the phenomena, not in their private biographies.

So, what compelled us to stage a musical about the phenomenon of school shootings? We are not a morbid performance group. We don’t like this kind of pornography. Crime, mass murders, suicide, and school shootings, are not subjects we normally deal with. But something in the story of the mass shooting in Aurora, Colorado, grabbed our attention. James Holmes shot and killed innocent movie theatre viewers during a screening of the latest Batman film. It made us think about theatre and death. We wondered, can a shoot happen during a school production of a musical or a school play? Somehow the Aurora incident was the primary drive behind the thought that in these dark subjects, there is something peculiar to tell about the spirit of our time.

Text: Toxic Dreams