Effi Briest 2.0 | Online Stage

Here's new, wacky way in which facebook has played virtuality into every possible angle of our real lives: it is now being used as a theater stage. Facebook will provide the setting for a new experiment by the Maxim Gorki theater: "Effi Briest 2.0“ is set to premiere on the social media site tonight, it is an adaptation of the real play currently in the Gorki theater's regular program.

So how do you turn a play into a facebook adaptation? The answer is both simple and utterly complex: The actors from the real Effi Briest have created profiles for each of their on-stage characters and will use them to post things on the play's facebook site using facebook chat, soundcloud, status updates, likes, etc. So the play is just an agglomeration of facebook posts on a wall? "We're going to just let ourselves be surprised by the final outcome," said Rebecca Rasem, a project coordinator at MGT, last week, "the dress rehearsal is on Saturday and we're all super excited."

But naturally, the audience must follow a certain set of groundrules as well. They are instructed to lean back and regularly update their browser, "and just like in an actual play they shouldn't chat while the performance is going on, unless of course they're asked to participate" explains Rasem. The viewers will get a short introduction on the site and the play today before the performance.

(jh)