Map to Utopia

Game Design & Developer

An interactive performance, connecting the new media, combined with role-play experience, with technological resources.

The future of our planet will be decided in the cities. How does the coexistence of cultures work? What form of democracy enables the participation of many and how does exchange between groups occur? While dealing with these questions, the team of the fringe ensemble and the Istanbul-based Platform Tiyatro landed again and again on the topic of how society and the individual deal with barriers. What do they mean for life in the city, how do they influence the inner structure, and how can we succeed in dismantling them, at least partially?

Using the cosmopolitan metropolis of Istanbul as an example, the team developed a fictitious cityscape with four districts and invites visitors to get to know them through the stories of fictitious biographies of people living there. Guided by five performers byfive performers, participants slip into the roles of people who live or work here, meet others, and exchange ideas.

The performance is interactive and hybrid: one can participate both in the theater and digitally on the screen at home.

“What remains is the amazing feeling of having stepped outside the door again and having looked a bit beyond one’s own nose.” (General-Anzeiger Bonn)

Since 2019, we have been steadily developing the performance. The result is a German, a Turkish and an international version as well as a hybrid and a purely digital version. To date, we can look back on 30 performances that have taken place in Bonn, in Münster in hybrid form and in digital space. MAP TO UTOPIA was invited to international festivals: İstanbul Tiyatro Festivali, European Culture Days Karlsruhe, international figures.theater.festival, A.MAZE Berlin. MAP TO UTOPIA was awarded the Human Machine Award at the international festival “A MAZE./BERLIN“. Invitations to symposia such as Play Perform Learn Grow 2021 or Next Level – Festival for Games followed.

Concept, Artistic Direction Ceren Ercan, Frank Heuel, Mark Levitas, Annika Ley, Fehime Seven
Direction Frank Heuel
Virtual Design, Stage, Costumes Annika Ley
Game Development, Game Design Fehime Seven
Dramaturgy, Text Ceren Ercan
Sound Design Ömer Sarıgedik