FESTWOCHEN 2006 (Vienna International Theater Festival)

Der hässliche Deutsche

„The ugly german“ still exists. At least in theatre. He is farting, he is vomiting, he is brutal. He is pouring blood all over himself and over his enemies just that this time it is only theatre-blood that comes from big bottles the actors carry around. He is naked and disgusting, he is wearing female clothes wondering if to cover his not existing breasts (that, at least is the most funny part of it), he is shitting and smearing the (theatre-) excrements around his and his colleagues faces, he eats it. In between he recites Shakespeare, but without any intonation. He calls this Macbeth. He thinks that scandals is enough to call it theatre, to call it art. He thinks that one scene of acting (when the ghosts appear to Macbeth at the dinner) is sufficient. He thinks that we are shocked by the play he put to scene. But we are just bored!
P.S.: the newspapers had said half of the people would leave in the first 10 minutes of Jurgen Gosch´s Festwochen production of Macbeth. I watched carefully but in the first ten minutes not anybody left (and the theatre was sold out). But slowly but steadily people were dropping out over the next two hors (after two hours also the author of these lines left) – not because of scandal, but because they were bored.

The entertaining Brit

How refreshing in contrary is British theatre. Forced entertainment – the name of the group is the program! How I love them when they fuzz around, when they produce chaos, when they drill and hammer and disturb the acting colleagues, when they represent the Stone Age by attacking deer with a long stick on a TV screen, when they vacuum clean through the French revolution…

When the actor that somehow reminded me on Jamie Oliver, sorry for that, is left alone on stage with the stupid suggestions from his colleagues (You know, I don’t really want to be in your shoes, but well, if I were you, well I would be quite nervous…anyhow, I know you will make it and remember, whatever you do, just be yourself…); when this actor finally left all alone on stage tells you a quite long story about the thoughts you might have after jumping from a rooftop because you wanted to find out about the afterlife; because standing on that rooftop is a perfect opportunity and you do not like to be known for lost opportunities or for being afraid of trying; When the story comes to being just ten meters above the ground, the actor abruptly stops:…well, I think I just leave you there and you may think about is for a while….

Or at the very end of the show when the same guy asks you if you remember the faces you may have seen on the tramway when you came to the theatre or the colour of the car that stopped quite in front of you at the red light if you drove; and that in a year you will have forgotten all this and maybe also the show; and in 10 years time some of you might be dead, that’s possible; and in 50 years time maybe more and in 200 years time its quite safe to say…and in 200 years also all people who have known us and who could remember us have died. And in 1000 years probably this building will not be here anymore and in 1000 years this city may not be here anymore, maybe lots of water or maybe just- space. Pessimistic? “Well maybe to give a bit of a positive spin to that, for those who like, you make think if you are happy with what you are doing while you are still here…”.

Protinius vive – so if you ever have a chance to see this amazing group, do something useful with the time that you have left in this short life and go for it!