[Theatre visit] Pollesch / Schmeiss dein Ego weg! @ Volksbühne
It's been a while, but I'd like to try and document my theatre visits, so here goes nothing...
In the cyborg seminar, we had a text by René Pollesch, the very opaque www-slums, and in connection with this we went to see a play by him: Schmeiß Dein Ego weg! (Throw your ego away!), which was also quite difficult to grasp but at least there were some very good acting and a couple of very interesting monologues.
The "plot" isn't quite simple to explain, but basically Martin (played by Martin Wuttke, he was really good!) wakes up after 200 year of being frozen, and tries to discuss the problem of the Fourth Wall - which has become a real, solid thing in the time he was frozen - and the issue of body, soul, self and the connection of these things with the woman he loves who has been split in two (or more? there's a "choir" too who might some time be part of this woman. Or not). The thing is, all the characters talk past each other, and the play is rather built around a series of monologues each defining a point of view than actual dialogues.
They also did interesting things with the Fourth Wall, which began as a panelled wall on the stage, so that it looked as if the walls of the theatre room extended to cover the stage too. Then they broke open two panels, and through a live feed, showed things from behind the wall (which was made to look like an old-fashiond living room) and then there was another video projecting on the wall inside this room which we only caught glimpses of, until the last scene.
Quite difficult to explain, even more difficult to understand (acoustically too, unfortunately, sometimes I had a hard time hearing the actors) but intense, engaging and leaving many thoughts behind. I'm also glad that I got to visit the Volksbühne, it seems to be a very interesting stage! And the building looks quite epic!
Originally posted at Dreamwidth.
In the cyborg seminar, we had a text by René Pollesch, the very opaque www-slums, and in connection with this we went to see a play by him: Schmeiß Dein Ego weg! (Throw your ego away!), which was also quite difficult to grasp but at least there were some very good acting and a couple of very interesting monologues.
The "plot" isn't quite simple to explain, but basically Martin (played by Martin Wuttke, he was really good!) wakes up after 200 year of being frozen, and tries to discuss the problem of the Fourth Wall - which has become a real, solid thing in the time he was frozen - and the issue of body, soul, self and the connection of these things with the woman he loves who has been split in two (or more? there's a "choir" too who might some time be part of this woman. Or not). The thing is, all the characters talk past each other, and the play is rather built around a series of monologues each defining a point of view than actual dialogues.
They also did interesting things with the Fourth Wall, which began as a panelled wall on the stage, so that it looked as if the walls of the theatre room extended to cover the stage too. Then they broke open two panels, and through a live feed, showed things from behind the wall (which was made to look like an old-fashiond living room) and then there was another video projecting on the wall inside this room which we only caught glimpses of, until the last scene.
Quite difficult to explain, even more difficult to understand (acoustically too, unfortunately, sometimes I had a hard time hearing the actors) but intense, engaging and leaving many thoughts behind. I'm also glad that I got to visit the Volksbühne, it seems to be a very interesting stage! And the building looks quite epic!
Originally posted at Dreamwidth.