BULLYACHE: A Good Man is Hard to Find – Sophiensæle | Independent Theater in Berlin

BULLYACHE: A Good Man is Hard to Find

A wide stage view shows a long table, several office chairs, and a large wall with a damaged section in the background. One person lies on the floor in the left foreground, while two others move quickly through the space, appearing blurred. The lighting is cool and spread across the stage.
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A pop-cultural collision of working-class and queer expression: the duo BULLYACHE uses vocabulary from circus, ballet, acrobatics, pop, and TikTok to create an exceptionally original and radical variation of contemporary dance theater. “We are Pina Bausch cosplaying as Dua Lipa performing albums as theater works,” say Courtney Deyn and Jacob Samuel about themselves.

Their latest work A Good Man is Hard to Find premiered at the Biennale di Venezia and is inspired by the 2008 financial crisis and the “Cremation of Care” ceremony—an annual ritual ceremony of the private club Bohemian Grove, where the global elite symbolically banish their guilt. The precise choreography deals with the absurd world of financial capitalism, management and its power games, hierarchies, toxic masculinity, humiliations, austerity and scapegoating mechanisms. In a dark and fucked-up scenario, an office party at the end of the world unfolds: New compositions by the duo are interwoven with Shostakovich’s Chamber Symphony in C minor—and elitist bankers act out their emotional devastation without regard for the consequences, ultimately culminating in a dramatic sacrificial ritual worthy of a Greek tragedy.

Ticket
Ticket

The information on accessibility is still in progress and will be updated as soon as possible. If any questions remain unanswered until then, please feel free to contact the communication department at barrierefreiheit@sophiensaele.com or 030 27 89 00 35. Please note that details may change by the day of the event. Therefore, if you find out after you have purchased your ticket that the performance is no longer accessible to you, you can contact us for a ticket return at ticketing@sophiensaele.com or 030 27 89 00 45 until 5 business days after the event (Monday through Friday between 10am and 6pm).

Early boarding

If, for artistic reasons, the door to the auditorium does not open until very shortly before the performance begins, there is the option of early boarding.

Tickets

  • Reservations can be made via the ticket telephone at 030 283 52 66, Monday to Friday from 4pm-6pm
  • Via the online ticket shop
  • At the box office

You can also find more information about accessibility at the house here.

Direction, choreography: BULLYACHE (Courtney Deyn & Jacob Samuel)

Music: BULLYACHE
Interpolation of Frank Schubert’s Ave Maria
Chamber Symphony, music by Dmitri Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 8 in C minor, Op. 110. arranged by Rudolf Barshai
The use of the music is given by permission of Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers Limited

Producer: Flo Trioux
Production management: Andy Downie
Rehearsal direction: Lewis Walker

Art direction: Sinisia
Costume: Bianca Peruzzi
Set design: TOR Studio
Set build: HS Design Studio

Performance: Courtney Deyn, Sam Dilkes, Oscar Jinghu Li, Giacomo Luci, Pierre Morrillon, Frank Yang

Live music: Asher Allen, Jacob Samuel (off-stage)

Mentor: Katie Mitchell
Opera coach: Sarah Tynan
Hypnotherapist: Michele Occelli
Pyrotechnician: Alex Podger
Piano & Arrangement: Asher Allen (Ave Maria, Franz Schubert)
Outside Eye: Alastair Curtis
Access Coordination: CompanyZe
Producing & Touring assistant: Cali Nice
Touring production/Stage management: Colin Everitt
Tourix LX Management/Relighter: Alfie Sissons
Special Thanks: Sir Wayne McGregor

A production by BULLYACHE in co-production with Unlimited, Sadlers Wells Theatre, La Biennale di Venezia, Les Brigittines and Playhouse for Movement – Brussels. With support by Attenborough Centre of Creative Arts, Fiona Garratt and Kamila Serkebaeva. Never Work—International Performance Festival is a festival by Sophiensæle, supported by the Capital Cultural Fund (HKF). Sophiensæle is supported by the Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion. Media partners: Berlin Art Link, Missy Magazine, Siegessäule, taz.

BULLYACHEis a London-based artist duo founded in 2021 by Courtney Deyn & Jacob Samuel. They choreograph, direct and compose original works that merge live music, rigorous choreography and theatrical spectacle. They operate at the intersection of dance, sound and visual culture, constructing performances that function as “live music videos” staged in real time.

They have created three full-length works, TOM, Who Hurt You? and A Good Man Is Hard to Find, which have toured internationally. Alongside their performance practice, they run accessible dance classes for LGBTQIA+ and working-class communities, engaging over 2000 people in the last year. BULLYACHE have held artist in residence positions at the Barbican, Studio Wayne McGregor and Britten Pears Arts, created performances for Abbey Road, Warp Records and Paris Fashion Week.

  • A wide stage view shows a long table, several office chairs, and a large wall with a damaged section in the background. One person lies on the floor in the left foreground, while two others move quickly through the space, appearing blurred. The lighting is cool and spread across the stage.
    © BULLYACHE
  • Several people kneel on a long table, leaning forward with their mouths open as if calling out or breathing. At the right edge of the stage, another person stands in a light two-piece outfit holding a bucket. The scene is dark, with focused lighting on the figures.
    © Andrea Avezzù, Courtesy La Biennale di Venezia
  • Two people dance on stage, one supporting the other in a leaned-back position as they move together. Both wear dark clothing, and the space is sparsely lit, with a long table and office chairs in the background.
    © Andrea Avezzù, Courtesy La Biennale di Venezia
  • Two people in dark suits stand on a stage beside a third person who is bent backward on the floor with their upper body exposed. One of the standing persons holds a glass. Office chairs and a table are visible in the background, and the scene is lit with cool, subdued lighting.
    © Andrea Avezzù, Courtesy La Biennale di Venezia
  • Five people stand side by side on a long table on a stage, holding numbered signs in front of their bodies. They wear similar, dirt-stained shirts and dark trousers, with partially white-painted faces. Fluorescent tubes hang above them, and a large dark opening in a wall forms the background.
    © Andrea Avezzù, Courtesy La Biennale di Venezia
  • A naked person lies on their side on the stage floor, body curled and head resting on an arm. Discarded clothing lies nearby. The space is dark, with a focused light illuminating the person and the floor.
    © Andrea Avezzù, Courtesy La Biennale di Venezia