Lets ̶J̶u̶s̶t̶ Be Friends
How do we want to live together, work together, take care of children together and grow old together without having to go to city hall?
Simone Dede Ayivi and Accomplices are celebrating friendship!
Photo: Renata Chueire
Friendships play a huge role in pop culture stories. Thanks to feminist achievements, strong female characters and thus also strong friendships are becoming more and more present. But we still can’t really nail down and describe the value of these informal relationships. For example, the various policies for dealing with the coronavirus pandemic could be summarized as “Do not meet up with your friends!” and “Rely on your friends to make sure you have everything you need during quarantine!”. Especially within queer contexts and for singles, this frequently led to loneliness. It’s high time that we see each other again.
Photos: Renata Chueire, Dorothea Tuch
In Let’s Just Be Friends, Simone Dede Ayivi interviews people who experience their friendships as a feminist counter concept to family businesses or marriages: friends who work together or who take on responsibilities for each other that would usually be attributed to a close family context or a romantic relationship between two people. How does an officially unofficial friendship change when we build houses together, raise children, found a business or make plans for old age?
CONCEPT, TEXT, PERFORMANCE Simone Dede Ayivi
DRAMATURGY Aidan Riebensahm
STAGE AND COSTUME DESIGN Theresa Reiwer
VIDEO, PERFORMANCE Jones Seitz
MUSIC, SOUND, PERFORMANCE houaïda
LIGHTING DESIGN, PERFORMANCE Frieder Miller
PROJECT ASSOCIATES Charlotte Rosengarth, Luca Plaumann
DESIGN ASSISTANT Laron Janus
TECHNICAL SOUND SUPERVISION Christiane Uhlig
PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT ehrliche arbeit – freies Kulturbüro
TECHNICAL DIRECTION Gefährliche Arbeit
PRESS Sarah Rosenau
With interview contributions by Chrissi Helmke + Dirk Kaufmann, Lina Mahko + Francesca Sika Dede Puhlmann, Andrzej Profus + Cash Hauke, Eleonore, Hannah Levy + Johanna Stevens, Sbouti + Juju
A production by Simone Dede Ayivi and Accomplices in co-production with SOPHIENSÆLE. Funded by the Basisförderung program of the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe and the Konzeptionsförderung program of Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media as part of NEUSTART KULTUR.
Media Partners:
Missy Magazine, RosaMag, taz, die tageszeitung.
The world premiere was on October 13, 2022 at Sophiensæle.
Trailer: Kornelia Kugler