LISA BRÜNING – The Circles
Performative ritual on recycling collective pain
Where do we go with the pain we carry in us?
Since ancient times, humans have sought healing in the collective wisdom of circles – a circle that is always as wise and strong as the shared experiences of its participants.
In times of collective and individual trauma, climate anxiety, and a growing sense of disconnection from our surroundings, director Lisa Brüning invites you into a ritual. In a series of three connected circles, we gently meet the pain we carry within us – and play with the idea that our pain is interconnected and cannot be resolved alone.
The Circles explores radical care and honesty as acts of resistance in a world where we are used to suppressing pain. At the centre of a society that is well, stands the exchange on what moves us inwardly as human beings. What would a society look like, however, if we were truly in contact with one another?
The performative ritual provides a safe space where pain does not need to be analysed, resolved, or fixed. It simply needs to be expressed, met, and handed over into the caring hands of a stranger – a group of people that comes after us. In a ritual in three parts, we become part of a larger dramaturgy on the recycling of collective pain.
First Circle: WOUND – Embracing Pain // 08. maj 2026
Participants place their current deepest personal, social, or environmental pain in the center of a circle.
Second Circle: CARE – Taking Caring Action // 09. maj 2026
Participants take care of a stranger’s pain, which has been left before them.
Third Circle: FREE – Setting Pain Free // 10. maj 2026
Participants set all collected pain free into the sea in a closing ritual.
The Circles can be experienced as a connected series or as three independent rituals.
ABOUT LISA BRÜNING
Lisa Brüning (DE) is a theatre director and primarily works internationally with site-specific, performative rituals. Her works explore the human relationship to nature and our connection with one another in the present. She combines participatory art with installations to evoke feelings of community. An awareness for a sustainable, mindful theatre production is deeply integrated into her way of working and thinking.
Lisa Brüning is educated at Ernst Busch University of Theatre Arts in Berlin. She collaborates with Metropolis since 2020 and created in 2022 the large-scale pilgrimage Back to the Sea at Naturpark Amager together with land-art artist Alfio Bonanno. Her most recent work is the large-scale performance Revisiting Tickon about spatial memories and death, which she created with Alfio Bonanno in 2025 at Tranekær International Center for Art and Nature.
PRACTICAL INFO
Duration: 75 min. per circle
Participants: 13
Age: 12+
Language: English
Photo: Lisa Brüning (1), Marine Gastineau (2), Frej Pries Schmedes (3)