Does the title of Christoph Marthaler’s first production at the Schiffbau in over ten years sound mysterious? Yes. And no. Because everything will quickly become clearer when it gets about that the title was conceived by the American composer John Cage (1912–1992) for a work written in 1976 that is about both the simultaneous singing of American hymns and signs of severe disintegration in terms of our perception of space and time. No wonder Marthaler and his ensemble are especially looking forward to entering these levitating landscapes of sound. And because Cage’s research into the interaction between nature, coincidence, everyday life and experience has its full impact only when apparently disparate elements come together, „44 Harmonies from Apartment House 1776“ abruptly opens the door onto a universe that John Cage especially admired: the majestically prolific world of mushrooms!
