Back to the Present

In 2003, Constanza Macras and her company Dorky Park created the legendary production BACK TO THE PRESENT, which premiered in the abandoned Jandorf department store in Berlin-Mitte and subsequently toured the world. Now, more than 20 years on, BACK TO THE PRESENT is back! Constanza Macras embarks on a journey into the past. Where do you go when you don’t want to confront either the past or the future?

Jill Emerson, the iconic performer from earlier Dorky Park productions, is back in the show, surrounded by a completely new cast. Following a break-up, the characters find themselves at an audition for a reality show. They try to be completely themselves whilst simultaneously becoming archetypes for a mass audience. Fetishised objects from past relationships pile up like debris beneath a mountain of rubble. BACK TO THE PRESENT exists in a kind of limbo between the layers of its own history. Jill has moved on, but has decided to return to where, in her view, it all began: BACK TO THE PRESENT.

As the opening event of our anniversary programme ‘75 Years of the Kurtheater’, we are delighted to welcome back Constanza Macras and Dorky Park, who treated us to an unforgettable evening of dance theatre at the Kurtheater with DRAMA in November 2024!

○ “A mad reflection on acute romantic turmoil; today it is a retrospective that is as melancholic as it is immensely funny, looking back on precisely those highly dramatic despairs from the time when one was young. The Volksbühne auditorium was literally shaking with laughter at the premiere.» Tanz, magazine for ballet, dance and performance

Back to the Present | Constanza Macras / Dorky Park