Schokolade at TJG, Dresden

Whether children or adults, almost everyone loves chocolate. Its taste is closely linked to our customs and traditions. Piece by piece, happy memories merge with its velvety sweet consistency. But how is chocolate made, how did it come to Dresden, and what journey does cocoa take? At a time when Europe was enriching itself through its colonies, chocolate became a fashionable drink among court society. Dresden soon became the German center of chocolate, where milk chocolate and the chocolate Advent calendar were invented. Until recently, the area around the Kraftwerk Mitte was always filled with the seductive smell of chocolate from the Elbflorenz company.

"Among mountains of paper, treasures wait to be discovered. Something is strange in this archive. How is it all connected? There are old documents, the smell of chocolate, and three children stuck inside. What Otchaly, Jeff, and Petra hear about cocoa makes them curious to set off into the world. An adventurous journey begins. Attracted by the delicious smell, they follow the trail of cocoa to Dresden, where so much chocolate was once produced that the city became its center in Europe. On their fantastic journey, they encounter ghosts of the past, the history of chocolate with its colonial entanglements, and discover the deep connection between Dresden and the raw material from their homeland Brazil. Three puppeteers and an actress use Pepper's Ghost illusion technology to tell the story of the three children and their encounter with fragments of chocolate." 

Together with Belgian-Beninese artist Pélagie Gbaguidi, Brazilian author João Victor Guimarães, and puppet theater director Petra Szemacha, three puppeteers and an actress explore these stories using the fascinating Pepper's Ghost illusion technique. With all their senses, they follow the traces of chocolate and set off from Dresden on a journey through time and around the world.