On Stage, a performance by Maria Hassabi with artistic direction by Stavros Gasparatos and Hassabi, had its German premiere at Radialsystem on 25 and 26 April 2025.
Speaking about her piece STAGING in 2017, Maria Hassabi says that her work asks audiences for the same kind of attention they usually give to non-live art pieces: “People walk by and you’re just there.” The emphasis on genre-based attention makes sense in this context because, like much of her oeuvre, STAGING was developed for performance in exhibition spaces. What sets On Stage apart from most of her other performance pieces is that it takes place in a theatre, yet it still retains her signature style of minimal, slow-paced movements. I wonder if Hassabi is asking us for a different kind of attention—a more focused one—now that we are seated in the huge and nearly full audience area of Radialsystem.
Hassabi stands downstage center with her black hair tied in a ponytail, wearing a blue shirt, blue jeans, and blue sneakers. She is lit and all around her is dark. She moves at a glacial pace, always staying frontal to us. A repetitive soundtrack plays: wind, birdsong, and incomprehensible whispers that change slightly in their volume and atmosphere, with occasional insertions of new sounds. Of STAGING, Hassabi mentions that the most important moments in the piece are when audiences can slow down enough to focus on their own breaths and look into another’s eyes. Sitting in the focused room without an option to gaze into anyone’s eyes, I ask myself what is the intention of this work. Are we to look at Hassabi so intently because she is the art? Could it be that not only Hassabi, but all of us are also performing under an unspoken agreement?
I notice my focus scattering.
I watch on.
My attention drifts.
I watch on.
I fall into a dreamscape.*
Where am I?
The wind blowing in circles and the birds chirping from afar… I hear the wind, I’m in it, but I don’t feel it on my body. It’s dark, very dark. My body moves as if it knows the way. Slowly, it walks in the dark until it stops. I gradually feel more and more light on my skin, but I can’t see—the light shines into my eyes. That’s when I feel them watching me. I can’t see them, but I know it. Who are they? Who am I? What do I look like?Black hair tied in a ponytail. Black eyebrows.
I am uncertain whether I heard this answer or if it came directly into my brain as a thought. My body moves. Slowly. My muscles clench to hold my body in uncomfortable shapes. My body moves me but I still feel every bit of its exertion. A muscle on the right side of my chest spasms, and I feel my shirt quiver slightly from it. My left thumb shakes. I feel the frown between my eyebrows. My body trembles, but I can’t stop its movements. Why is it doing this?
Blue jeans. Blue shirt. Blue sneakers.
A voice comes into my brain again. This time, I am sure I didn’t hear it through my ears… but I recognise the voice. My body starts to sweat.
The lights get brighter. Before, I felt the beams of light only on my body, but now I feel them around me as well. I still don’t see the viewers though, as the front is dark and lights shine into my eyes. I feel more revealed under the bright lights. Then, a thought comes.
So lonely, standing alone in a big, lit space.
Sounds rush in. At first distant and quiet, but closer and louder until many voices—all the same person’s—shout in my head.
Black ponytail! Black eyebrows!
Blue jeans! Blue shirt! Blue sneakers!Instinctively I want to cover my ears with my hands—though it wouldn’t protect against voices coming straight into my head—but I can’t, as my arms are crossed in front of my torso. The light from the front gets brighter and I am suddenly gripped with the fear of finally confronting the viewers until…
I see them now, staring at me. Hundreds of Maria Hassabis in blue shirts, blue jeans, blue sneakers, and black ponytails.
On Stage, a performance by Maria Hassabi with artistic direction by Stavros Gasparatos and Hassabi, had its German premiere at Radialsystem on 25 and 26 April 2025.
