Two Bobs and a Steve

This performance piece, inspired by Steve Reich’s Clapping Music, humorously explored the obsessive persistence of two performers as they engaged with a series of twelve malfunctioning mechanisms. Comedy unfolds as the performers, determined to complete their task, move from one mechanism to the next, with each one inevitably breaking down. Rather than giving up, they adapt by integrating parts of the broken mechanisms into new ones, blurring the line between human and man-made.

This piece drew on postmodern slapstick and absurdity, inspired by the works of Wood & Harrison and Fischli & Weiss. The performers’ futile attempts to sustain the machines’ rhythm, combined with their mechanical failures, highlight the humor in human perseverance against inevitable breakdowns. As the performers battle with collapsing machinery, the audience is invited to laugh at the absurdity of their relentless yet hopeless quest—a reflection on human resilience in the face of failure, wrapped in a comedic framework.

Concept and direction: Pavlos Kountouriotis
Organisation: Friederike Hansen
Audio and sound design: Tobias Gronau
Production design: Malina Raßfeld, Duško Ruljević
Performed by: Pavlos Kountouriotis, Philipp van der Heijden
Photo documentation: Anja Beutler

Two Bobs and a Steve is made in co-production with K3 Tanzplan Hamburg. K3 resident choreographies 2018 are supported by Hamburgische Kulturstiftung.