BOYBAND – 2021

A performance about masculinities by notsopretty with Tim-Fabian Hoffmann, Lars Nichtvontrier and David Martínez Morente.

The intro video starts, loud music and light show begin, transforming the stage into the biggest boy band show you’ve ever witnessed: Fog machine, music & screaming fans. Three men. Three stars. Unprecedented. The world will never be the same again. David Martínez Morente, Tim-Fabian Hoffmann & Lars Nichtvontrier dance their masculinities.

BOYBAND is the start of a new era. An era in which three performers considered male persons question the various ways in which masculinities can be represented and performed. They are gentle, make themselves vulnerable, reflect their privileges and allow insecurities. Can they get out of the male comfort zone?

The boys tell personal stories between homoeroticism and bromance, boy band show and boot camp, as well as about aggression and affection. With BOYBAND, notsopretty explores alternative approaches to break the toxic cycle of patriarchal masculinity. For this, notsopretty makes use of the successful pop strategy of boy bands as an inspiration for thoughts about being a man. BOYBAND is not afraid of being pop and delves deep into boy band references: from Boyz II Men and Backstreet Boys to the South Korean band BTS. What can these boy bands tell us about the construction of different masculinities?

The performance is not only centred on pop references, but also uses the personal stories of the performers to look ahead, like the kind of father they want to be. Hegemonic masculinity as a catalyst for social crisis makes a production like BOYBAND an indispensable piece - a political and poetic space to question masculinities - and to dance.

Funded by

In coproduction with

The restaging has been funded by the Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media within the framework of NEUSTART KULTUR.