Neon Neon & National Theater of Wales @ Berghain Berlin | Wednesday 09.07. & Thursday 10.07.2014

One of the highlights of this years Foreign Affairs festival presented by Berliner Festspiele is a special stage show combining live music by Neon Neon aka Super Furry Animals singer Gruff Rhys and Boom Bip, and a theater performance by the National Theater of Wales. Rhys own new solo album American Interior just came out and the lastest collaboration as Neon Neon, Praxis Makes Perfect, was released last year on Lex. Berliner Festpiele recently presented Einstein On The Beach, well this is Communism On The Beach.

httpv://https://youtube.com/watch?v=0TYGtl1Nc5Q

With Neon Neon, the popduo from Wales and L.A., the National Theatre Wales has created the perfect fusion of concert and theatre. This extraordinary show brings their concept album ‘Praxis Makes Perfect’ to life. Its subject is the biography of Italian publisher Giangiacomo Feltrinelli: A millionaire’s son becomes a communist and starts a publishing house in order to enlighten the masses.

httpv://https://youtube.com/watch?v=z4lZqDmCO9c

There is a great love, persecution by the government and a mysterious end. The saga’s location is Italy – this great cultural nation, equally exposed to decay and contemporary media as to the relentless Mediterranean sun. We as audience are always right in the midst of things. Enter the unique world of “Praxis Makes Perfect”! Become part of an immersive gig imagining the life of Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, smuggle a manuscript out of Russia, be tortured by the CIA , play basketball with Fidel Castro!

httpv://https://youtube.com/watch?v=fXNt2NoepyM

With Feltrinelli anything is possible. We are also invited to take a stance, say, on the abolition of the monarchy, which was voted out in Italy in 1946 but is still of importance in the country this production hails from. But whatever happens on stage, the seductive music itself makes us part of this collective movement again and again.