Claudia Bauer's Puppet Humans at Venice Biennale Theatre

German director Claudia Bauer presented 'Und dann' at the 2017 Venice Biennale Theatre, staging a 'impossible' contemporary text by young playwright Wolfram Höll. The production uses oversized ball heads, puppet hands, and Pinocchio noses to transform actors into marionettes with childlike appeal, exploring universal identity through masks. The set is an apartment without walls or windows, allowing intimate glimpses into characters' souls. Bauer employs live video projections, altered voices, radio sounds, music loops, and acid-colored lights. The story follows a family in an unspecified former East German location, seen through the eyes of a youngest child processing his mother's mysterious death, his father's unemployment, and post-Wall Germany. The child's stream of consciousness blends dreams and memories, with everyday objects morphing into nightmares: doorbells become black beetles, the father's radio transmitter turns into a beast. Bauer's dramaturgy creates a fluid narrative for this minimal family story, addressing personal and national mourning, alienation, and hope for a new future.