Twenty-three years ago – a time span not fit for jubilee celebrations – Christoph Marthaler, Anna Viebrock and a couple of Swiss actors and musicians arrived at the Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz for the first time. Upon their arrival they connected with a group of artists who had already settled there and made Volksbühne their home. Ever since the troupe have been gathering there again and again. And they have changed. Just in rare cases this was due to force majeure. Now, why do we mention all that? Because feelings and faces are volumes that have an enormous potential for elasticity. However, this increase in tension linked to the so-called “linear progression of time” takes place only partially in the visible sphere. Most of it occurs in the inner regions of the body, pressing against organs, eyeballs and eardrums. Although this is not painful, it keeps sowing the seed of doubt as to whether the faces and feelings present might have changed their owners in spite of their well-fitted original clothes tailored towards the end of the twentieth century. Who among those facing each other now on the partially renovated parquet floor is cut from exactly the same cloth as before? Wasn’t one or the other already hanging on the wall as a painting in his or her company of choice? Got stuck in the lift unnoticed, or submerged through the floor hatch on the sly? According to classical doctrine, hermenauticals (a rare form of maritime traffic diagnostics) would refer to these conventions as “witching hour”. Yet for Marthaler’s pre-season happening “Familiar Feelings, Mixed Faces”, the limits of strict science must be considered to have finally been reached. It is pure faith that counts now. And faith is – as always – the result of a series of fortunate circumstances. And this could be the only conceivable subtitle of this show: A series of fortunate circumstances by Christoph
Duration: 2h 10min
With: Hildegard Alex, Tora Augestad, Marc Bodnar, Magne Håvard Brekke, Raphael Clamer, Bendix Dethleffsen, Altea Garrido, Olivia Grigolli, Irm Hermann, Ueli Jäggi, Jürg Kienberger, Sophie Rois and Ulrich Voß
Director: Christoph Marthaler
Stage Designer: Anna Viebrock
Costumes: Anna Viebrock
Light Design: Johannes Zotz
Video: Klaus Dobbrick
Dramaturgy: Malte Ubenauf, Stefanie Carp
Johann Sebastian Bach, Partita No. 5, Praeambulum (BWV 829)
Ludwig van Beethoven, Klaviersonate No. 30, op. 109 (Ausschnitt)
Giuseppe Cioffi/Raffaele Cutolo „Dove sta Zazà“
Guglielmo Cottrau „Raziella“
Friedrich Glück/Joseph von Eichendorf „In einem kühlen Grunde“
Georg Friedrich Händel „Lascia ch'io pianga mia cruda sorte“ aus „Rinaldo“
Friedrich Hollaender/Robert Liebmann „Ich weiß nicht, zu wem ich gehöre“
Paul Lincke „Glühwürmchen-Idyll“ aus „Lysistrata“
Gustav Mahler/Friedrich Nietzsche „O Mensch“
Thomas Morley „Come sorrow, come“
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart/Emanuel Schikaneder „In diesen heil’gen Hallen“ aus „Die Zauberflöte“
Erik Satie „Messe des pauvres“
William Shakespeare „Take, oh take those lips away“
Arnold Schönberg/Albert Giraud/Otto Erich Hartleben „Der kranke Mond“ aus „pierrot lunaire“ (op. 21)
Franz Schubert/Wilhelm Müller „Des Baches Wiegenlied“ aus „Die schöne Müllerin“
Franz Schubert/Franz von Schober „An die Musik“, D 547
Giuseppe Verdi „Va, pensiero“ aus „Nabucco“
Boby Lapointe „Aragon et castille“
Deutsche Volksweise/Hermann Scherchen „Brüder zur Sonne zur Freiheit“
Richard Wagner, Ausschnitte aus Tannhäuser und Parsifal (u.a.)
