Chewing Gum Makes A Demon Really Happy

Year of production 2016.

Written and directed by Ronaldas Obukas and Simone Halder

Technical realisation: Simone Halder

Nomination Berliner Hörspielfestival 2017/Winner ARD Pinball 2019.

The radio play ‘Chewing Gum Makes A Demon Really Happy’ is about reality, staging and the ‘in-between’.

What is reality? What we want to believe? What can be empirically proven? When does staging begin? And where does it end?

We asked ourselves these questions and came across Chris La Sala, an internet guru who can exorcise demons via Skype.

This is how John Ventana was born, a Russian-born self-proclaimed specialist in matters of redemption.

We also hung around in self-deliverance channels and created our own DIY devil exorcism tutorials.

Formally, the piece plays with re-enacted scenes - as with many documentaries on format television - and supposedly true events.

But what the listener wants to believe in the end is entirely up to them.

Die Grausamkeit des vermeintlichen Wohlwollens

Year of production 2020.

Written and directed by Simone Halder

Technical realisation: Simone Halder

Nomination ARD Pinball 2020.

Nomination Alternative Media Award 2021.

Nomination Berliner Hörspielfestival 2021.

‘Die Grausamkeit des vermeintlichen Wohlwollens’ deals with the infirmity of my mother until her death in June 2020.

The manuscript was already finished when she finally died on 17 June 2020.

In May 2017, she suffered her first serious stroke, which was accompanied by severe hallucinations.

For days, she was convinced that she was alternately in a whale's belly, a submarine and the ‘BMW screening room’

and that James Bond was accompanying her.

This theme gave rise to the basic idea of the play, which is intended to convey impressions of everyday life with the illness in the style of a collage. In addition to the health problems, which are already a heavy burden, a person in such a situation also struggles with the social consequences of their acquired inadequacy.

Due to the strong emotions that this very personal topic evokes, ‘The Cruelty of Supposed Benevolence’ tries its hand at bitter humour in order to avoid a striking one-dimensionality. Only the listener can judge whether the experiment has succeeded....
 

Das Archiv ist tot.

Year of production 2016.

Written and directed by: Konrad Behr, Patrick Beyer, Florian Füger, Simone Halder and Grit Lieder

Technical realisation: Florian Füger, Patrick Beyer.

Nomination Leipziger Hörspielsommer 2017.

The radio play Das Archiv ist tot plays with the idea of transience in an institution that sees itself as a symbol of eternity. An archivist experiences a complete loss of control over his archive.

The archive system goes on hunger strike, refuses to be fed and his beloved archive begins to develop a life of its own. Without his intervention, files assign themselves categories and numbers, books reorganise themselves. The archivist feels his authority dwindling and decides to take a decisive step: he himself becomes a saboteur of his own cause and buries his archive.

Gott steckt Dir das Messer rein und lässt die Klinge stecken- Fragmente.

Year of production 2011/ 2012.

Written and directed by Simone Halder

Technical realisation: Simone Halder

Nomination Hoer.Spiel St. Pölten 2013.

Pornography needs an image? I asked myself this question and wrote a radio play porn film.

It's supposed to be a homage to all the B-movies of this world, the holy kitsch and trash of this earth. I hope I made Russ Meyer happy with it.

There is nothing more to add. Dear audience, listen for yourself.