The world’s two largest Tesla coils are this off-beat orchestra’s instruments. They use 26 kilowatts of energy to produce four-meter-high bolts of lightning, and convert million-volt high tension into audio frequencies. But that’s not all. For the show’s big number, a Tesla performer clad in a 20-kilogram protective metal suit climbs into the ring for a daring dance with the lightning.

Tesla Orchestra, credit: Tesla Orchestra

Schedule

www.teslaorchestra.com

Hiroshi Ishigoro, credit: Tsukasa Aoki

Sayonara, credit: Tatsuo Nambu / Aichi Triennale 2010

Exactly this level of interaction makes up the narratical and philosophical tension of the amazing android-theatre Sayonara, which has been written for two actors by Ishiguro together with Oriza Hirata (JP), one of them being human, the other one an android. It is not told who is who, a puzzle to be solved by the audience. A great good-bye is in the center of Sayonara: The master who feels his death coming listens to poems about journeys and good-byes, read by his student. The play is about 20 minutes long and is in Japanese, English and German.