Presse – Die Mammutaufgabe

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FAZ: Feelings as big as a mammoth. About feelings and how to deal with them: theater maker Jan Philipp Stange and his team present the children's play “Die Mammutaufgabe” at the Netzwerk Seilerei in Frankfurt.

How much heaviness can a play for children take? Director Jan Philipp Stange and his team must have asked themselves this question more than once for their production of “Die Mammutaufgabe” at the Netzwerk Seilerei in Frankfurt. The play begins with a loose exposition, a huge, furry mammoth singing in falsetto, which looks as if it has been brought out of the Senckenberg Museum especially for the performance. This magnificent mammoth costume (Maylin Habig) comes from the adult version of “Great Depressions” (2018) at Frankfurt production house Studio Naxos. The mammoth has been recycled for the current children's play. It contains two players (Jacob Bussmann, Paula Schulenburg) who make it dance wonderfully lightly, wiggle its ears and tail or trudge stolidly between jungle plants, tent and audience. Into this scenery bursts a robust Stone Age man with a club (Daniel Degeest), who eats berries from bushes, hums lively songs or steps into the mammoth's “poop” and encourages the laughing or “Ewww” shouting children to blow vigorously to light a fire. It is precisely this almost clammy magic, this ice-age musical atmosphere that prepares the audience for things to suddenly get serious. The interaction with the children

Die Mammutaufgabe, Theater for everyone aged 5 and up

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A beautiful, touching, but simple and therefore profound production from front to back

(FAZ)

Rugged rocks, wafts of mist: A mammoth lives alone and secluded in the Stone Age jungle. And is sad. The lonely pachyderm sings his gloomy songs until one day they are heard by a Stone Age man. Together, the two wonder how feelings can be allowed and talked about. A mammoth task.

Duration: approx. 45 minutes
for everyone aged 5 and over

NEXT PERFORMANCES

23.9.2025, 9 & 11 a.m., performances for schools and daycare centers, Gallus Theater
23.9.2025, 3 pm, open performances for everyone
24.9.2025, 9 & 11 am, performances for schools and daycare centers, Gallus Theater

FURTHER PERFORMANCES for schools and after-school care centers can be booked via christina@janphilippstange.com. If interested, we also offer a subsequent workshop with theater pedagogue Daniel Degeest. Further information is also available in the Mediation brochure for educators.

PREMIERE was on 3.7.2024. Up to 25 performances to date, for 2500 spectators, including from 4-27 July 2024 at Netzwerk Seilerei, 9-11 September 2024 at Sommerwerft Frankfurt, 2-4 April 2025 at Junge Theaterwerkstatt am Zoo Frankfurt, 12-15.6.25 at Frankfurt Lab, etc. Invited to the FLUX guest performance program 2024-26.

Artistic direction: Jacob Bussmann, Daniel Degeest, Bella Enderlein & Jan Philipp Stange. Costume, set design: Maylin Habig. Sound design: Rupert Jaud. Mediation and outreach: Sara Gröning. Performance: Jacob Bussmann, Daniel Degeest, Paula Schulenburg. Production: Christina Lutz. Graphics: Johannes Helm. Production collaboration: Paula Schulenburg. Photos: Christian Schuller.

A production by Stange Produktionen, supported by the Cultural Office of the City of Frankfurt and the Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.

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