Szenefenster

Yodelling, adhesive tape, zombie blood… and who was Helvetia anyway? «Heimat in progress and who the f*** is Helvetia» is an excerpt from Simon Baumann’s upcoming stage play, which will premiere at the Tojo Theatre in Bern in October 2026. The excerpt examines home as a fragile, contradictory and personal construct. It was created during a residency at Roxy Theatre in Birsfelden. The starting point is three levels of home: a personal, a historical and a political one, which are intertwined in a performative way. At the beginning, the audience encounters a character in a monologue that appears to be an attempt to bring order to the chaos of their own origins. Oscillating between vulnerability, defiance and playful exaggeration, she becomes a narrative voice that does not explain home, but repeatedly grapples with it.

«blue» represents effort. It’s a process of becoming and externalising emotions through movement and physical effort of the body. It presents what being stuck in a loop leads to. It also raises questions about the ability to control and recognise one’s patterns of action. It allows the audience to experience a visible flow of emotional states of the performer.

A body stuck in a capitalist reality, being transformed and treated as merely a product leads to a breaking point. The constant need to prove and justify one’s existence is not only unsustainable – it breaks you. It causes you to sweat, spit and cry. And trying to sustain your life as an immigrant, a queer person and in a precarious situation becomes a loop. Of trying to survive despite the circumstances.

«blue» is exposing the reality. It’s a clash with expectations that only seem safe and happy on the surface, as if choosing a life where you thought you might be heard, feel safer and happier actually becomes your personal struggle.

Nina talks about the ultimate contraceptive: children’s birthday parties. Between Doodle madness, YB jerseys for £110 and pirate events with burnout dad, consumption escalates completely. While Prosecco in the kitchen becomes a survival strategy, she wonders: when did birthdays actually become corporate events?

Back home, the next project awaits: 1,000 items of clothing in the wardrobe. Shopping as a circular economy, wedding dresses as rat villas, TED Talk enlightenment included.

In the end, she stands on stage with a bin bag – and turns decluttering into a happening. Treat clothes like relationships. Swap instead of hoarding. Turn chaos into comedy. Over and out.