Lalish Theaterlabor, Research Center for Theatre and Performance-Culture (Vienna, Austria) 

With and by: Nigar Hasib and Shamal Amin

“My theatre is a river, that flows through worlds“

Shamal Amin

With the research-project No shadow (2006-2009) and the continuing research Songs as a Source, the Lalish Theaterlabor dedicates itself, in performance, to today’s mostly forgotten archeological search for the human voice, its individual and cultural origin and its direct impact. 

Nigar Hasib and Shamal Amin seek to discover an original, intermediate and artistic language, outside of the conventional linguistic symbolism. This new, non-linguistic language consists of syllables, sounds, tones and possibly still other vocal expressions, stemming from various different cultures. All this leads to a new way of communication in performance. And special work on own composed experimental Voice and Singing techniques. Voices and songs become the source of rhythm, of physical presence and also the source of action. 

Shamal Amin aptly named this new phase in the work of the Lalish Theaterlabor the Awakening of the Abstract Solemnity: “We create a flowing space, wherein voices and songs turn into pleasure. The voice resembles an action which always allows one to discover something new.” 

This new, non-linguistic language in the performance work of the Lalish Theaterlabor therefore distinguishes itself fundamentally from today’s so-called artistic languages of world theatre, which primarily deal directly with representation, with things, subjects and stories. Shamal Amin and Nigar Hasib always try to create an empty space, which then becomes filled with voice and movement. A space in which the surroundings turn into an “Everywhere and Nowhere“, into a ritual-space and time transforms itself into an “Always and Never”, into a ritual-time.

Songs and voices are not being employed to deepen a dramatic plot or to connect two scenes to one another, or to try to embody the theme of a song. Neither are songs performed for special occasions or to fit a given situation. The Lalish Theaterlabor’s Songs as a Source surpass all these limitations and deconstruct such techniques. 

Nigar Hasib, describing this process: “Songs create our actions, but our actions do not interpret our songs lexically. Therefore each song, each vocal action, prescribes its own precise movement-score for the body. The body deals directly with the “Life of the Sounds” and its acting becomes organic instead of purely technical. In this way of acting the body doesn’t become a part of the voice and the voice a part of the body, but they form a unity, because that unity is the original source of expression.” 

No shadow as a work in progress was performed in different versions of 2006-2008 in Austria and on international theatre and music festivals in: Japan, Greece, Kosovo, Ukraine, Egypt.