The rehearsal process began with photographs of screaming sports fans, boxing fights, raves and snipers… and thus a confrontation with bodies that are out of control or reacting to catastrophes. Alibi is movement research in extreme situations; the rehearsals were also confronted by the shock and the aftermath of the terror acts in the USA. In her first work for the Schauspielhaus Zürich, Meg Stuart looks at the moment in which being a multimedia witness turns into personal involvement and the “wallflowers/observers” of the daily news become active. She creates an exciting, raw and depressing study of the emotional poverty and increasing tendency towards violence that points to a loss of security and the paths of social pressure. Omnipresent violence – otherwise hidden in Stuart’s pieces – is shown and celebrated. Alibi exercises are existential acts of violence in this highly direct work.