PRIME TIME stages the inhabitants of several apartments in one block in such a way that the spectators, standing outside and wearing headphones, can watch what happens on several floors of the building as well as listen in. Each viewer becomes a kind of secret witness to a crime that never takes place. At first, the plot inside the building is simple – what goes on is identical with what happens every evening. And because the curtains are open, these routine activities are visible from the street. The residents come home from work, have something to eat, make phone calls, put the children to bed, and watch TV. But the separate activities are more closely connected than it seems at first – as links, reflections and duplications unfold, the residents’ evening rituals begin to look like they are coordinated, almost as if the after-work activities are part of a large-scale conspiratorial choreography. In this way, the piece becomes an acoustic magnifier for an entire building, each window a peep-hole revealing what lies behind the facade of a small social unit: the apartment block.

Dominic Huber (blendwerk), Zúrich

Dominic Huber (b. 1972), a stage designer and theatre maker, likes to work in and on spaces that might be film sets. These spaces are not just viewed from the auditorium, but can be walked around and used by individual viewers or groups. In line with the principle of “augmented realities”, Huber is interested in expanding, manipulating and altering physical spaces, situations and realities by means of precise artistic interventions, inventing new ways of interpreting the world that surrounds us. After studying architecture at ETH Zurich, Huber co-founded with Christa Wenger the company blendwerk gmbh. Productions followed in theatres in Zurich, Berlin, Aachen, Brussels, Lausanne and Basel, among other cities. Working with Bernhard Mikeska, Huber co-developed (as mikeska:plus:blendwerk) a number of installation-based theatre projects, including “Rashomon: TRUTH LIES NEXT DOOR”, “GHOSTS: who’s watching you?”, “MARIENBAD :: coming soon”, and a project contribution for “Wir retten Zürich”.
As a stage designer, he has worked with theatre makers including Susanne-Marie Wrage, Simone Aughterlony, Peter Licht, Stefan Kaegi and Lola Arias. He was awarded the working fellowship of the city of Zürich in 2009. In 2010, he is working on his theatrical installation project “HOTELSAVOY” in a building of the Goethe Institute on 5th Avenue in New York.

www.blendwerk.ch