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On and On and On and On (2025)

A retrospective for the 15th anniversary of machina eX

Since 2010, machina eX has been producing interactive theater pieces that are also walk-through video games. The collective celebrated its 15th anniversary with a retrospective at HAU Hebbel am Ufer, which has been the group’s closest partner from the very beginning.

As part of ” On and On and On and On,” the Theater Games took place Life Goes On and Intranet were performed once again. The program also included an anniversary exhibition, two workshops, and discussion panels where guests exchanged ideas about the past, present, and future of game theater. The result was a four-day showcase at HAU3 that brought together old and new machina-eX players, industry professionals and school classes, gamers and theatergoers.

As part of the House Club, you can also experience a new staging of a machina-eX classic: Students at the Fritz-Karsen School explore the sci-fi dystopia *15,000 Gray* (2011) through 15,000 Games, using the 15,000 Gray DIY Kit, which machina eX released in 2018.

Program

Installation
Anniversary Exhibition

Theater (Houseclub/machina eX)
15,000 games

Theater
Life Goes On

Theater
Intranet

Workshop
Building Real-Life Games with adaptor:ex

Workshop
Puzzles and Problems in Game Design

Conversation
Dinner & Games

Conversation
Zoom Breakfast with International Guests

Panel Discussion
Don’t Stop Believing – 15 Years of Games and Theater

Online
Intranet // Work from Home

Online
Life Goes On // At Home

People are sitting around a table and looking at a screen showing a video game.
Two people are sitting next to each other, smiling.
A man is sitting at a table and speaking into a microphone.
Tinsel curtains and visitors at an exhibition.
A rug with a large, colorful 15.
Tinsel curtains at an exhibition, and a visitor watching a documentary.
A dot matrix printer on a table.
A canvas with a four-tile zoom.
Lasse Marburg and Clara Ehrenwerth are sitting at a table; there is a projector to their right.

Supporting Program and Exhibition, Credit: Louis Volkmann and Mathias Prinz

A man is sitting in front of a homemade game console.
People are standing around a homemade game console.
People are browsing through a selection of clothes made out of cardboard.
A sketch of a stadium and a photo of a soccer player hang on a black wall.
Several people are searching through a desk.
Three people are sticking postcards on a black wall beneath a wall clock.
Hands are typing on a laptop with a video playing on the screen.

15,000 Games, Credit: Louis Volkmann

Carolin Gerlach is speaking into a microphone.
The audience at HAU3.
Christian Rakow is sitting and speaking into a microphone.
Four people standing in a semicircle on stage.
Katja Grawinkel-Claassen is sitting on a chair on stage.
Georg Werner is sitting and speaking into a microphone.

Panel discussion “Don’t Stop Believing,” Credit: Mathias Prinz

Production: machina eX, HAU Hebbel am Ufer. Funded within the framework of the Alliance of International Production Houses by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.

“Don’t Stop Believing”
: A Conversation on 15 Years of Games and Theater

HAU4 – digital stage of HAU hebbel am ufer

Zoom Breakfast with International Guests
A conversation with Binge Culture (Wellington, New Zealand), Fast Familiar (London, UK), Kim Borahm (Seoul, South Korea), and Neel Chaudhuri (New Delhi, India)

HAU4 – digital stage of HAU hebbel am ufer