Nachlass is a German word which literally means “leave after”, and can be translated as “legacy, inheritance”. Death, and that which we leave behind, is the theme of the production by Rimini Protokoll, a collective led by the Swiss Stefan Kaegi and Dominic Huber.  A “theatre without actors” in which the audience is left in direct contact with the presence-absence of eight people whose accounts are entrusted to audio-visual installations and objects which speak of that which they left behind after their death.
A blend of theatrical experience and artistic installation, in which the audience is called on to become part of the production, the work is composed of eight rooms which open onto an elliptical central space. Each room is dedicated to the “Nachlass”, the legacy, of a particular person. The visit to each room, which the spectators can choose as they wish, lasts for approximately eight minutes, and the doors open and close automatically at the beginning and end.
An inevitable subject in all human experience, the theme is examined in a direct way by artists from a country, like Switzerland, which is at the forefront both in terms of research which allows a considerable prolonging of life expectancy, and for the legislation which has opened the, currently, very topical ethical debate on the freedom of choice regarding the end of our existence.
The production, constructed around the fundamental existential questions regarding mankind, can offer and suggest a positive viewpoint. A reflection on that which we have received and that which we can leave to those who come after us could be the best condition for a life which is as serene as possible.