PRESS "MONO SUBJECTS" BY THOMAS LEHMEN
Without the aesthetic burden of the movement, the body expresses
itself. In contemporary dance the body is no longer site of truth or
beauty, but of the immediate, without hyperbole, at the most sensually
reinforced. So: effect, yes, intention, non. That's why there is a
reference to the Tourette syndrome, to this illness, where the patient
is forced to give involuntary cries or obscene expressions,
accompanied by violent convulsions. But it is not going as far as
that. A possible subject of this night is: Show the zero, without being
the zero. This is an exact description of the advanced dance events. A
long time ago it changed from the indicative to the subjunctive - it
should have been danced.
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: Franz Anton Cramer
Thomas
Lehmen likes playing and he also likes playing something. In the last
years his path through the dance environment led straight upwards: In
the German dance scene his last solo "distanzlos"(without distance) is
one of the internationally most known pieces. This year, Lehmen is
artist-in-residence in the Podewil in Berlin, an autonomous Place for
performance. "Mono Subject" is the first piece made in this context.
But wait, no- didn't we understand anything then? The end is a kind of
joke, which prepares the following, namely performances about the
performance about the performances. Mono Subject is probably the first
performance that ends with reading its critique.
Kieler Nachrichten : Constanze Klementz
Lehmen
has existential goals in his work. He is dealing with the question of
the being of the performer, who exposes nothing but him self, free of
roles or style dictation. What is true, what is staged, what is real
in the theatrical context? In the beginning of his choreographies he
approaches the question with a seducing simplicity. Then he develops a
complex structure concentrating on issues like identity, original and
faking.
But Lehmen is not playing. There is a lot of truth in his
attitude, which is engaged. This is his quality as a choreograph and
as a performer.
TAZ, Hamburg: Irmela Kästner