This fall the artistic endeavours of
German related venues were such a multitude, it was hard to keep
up. We reviewed a few for you.
First there was the end of the Stratford season with Gotthold
Ephraim Lessing’s play Emilia Galotti, a production of renowned
director Michael Thalheimer of the Deutsches Theater Berlin. The
play was first staged in 2001 and was invited to be performed
all over the world since then, calling together on and off the
great cast. For 3 days this play in German language was
performed by some of Germany’s finest stage actors at Canada’s
Shakespearian Valhalla, the Stratford Theatre. Language was not
a problem factor in this production that largely relied on
symbolism to relate a modern version to a modern audience the
human condition as described in the play.
Emilia, played superbly by Regine Zimmermann, is silent in this
version of the play, she is uncertain of her purpose in life,
torn between her duty to her parents and her suppressed desires
of the flesh. Nearly motionless and frozen in her indecision she
wanders through the play on an empty stage that looks like a
huge box with a multitude of doors on either side, signaling the
many choices one has of coming and going or hiding.
Henning Vogt as the besotted Count Appiani manages to explain to
the audience an all consuming desire for the innocent Emilia,
and with his often contortion like body language, how he is in
need, for love or just sexual pleasure is not always clear, but
certainly his game is conquering.
Emilia’s parents played by Katrin Klein and Peter Pagel further
display a domestic structure that is archaic and destructive,
plagued by a lack of communication.
When there is talk it is in staccato like tones and speeds, in
monotonous values, like rapid machine gun fire. It becomes a
marvel to see that some of it actually can be duplicated by the
other person, or how it becomes misinterpreted, especially in
the scenes with the counts lackey, the Chamberlain Marinelli,
who thinks nothing of getting his hands dirty for his count. The
fantastic timing and he body language employed in this drama is
a much more telling vehicle for the ensuing debacle. There is a
scene between the count’s previous love interest, the scorned
Countess Orsina, played by the amazingly talented and
multifaceted Nina Hoss, that we have seen in "The White Massai"
in 2005, and just very recently in "A woman in Berlin", the
story of the mass rape and abuse of the women in Berlin when the
Russians conquered the city.
In this scene she demonstrates how
a woman can decimate a man because of his physical desire, what
power a woman can have over a man via sexuality.
The message in this play is loud and clear and reflects our
current society exactly: lack of ethics and morals, the seeking
of instant gratification, the lack of communication, and because
of this the isolation of people into loneliness. It came to
Canada because of the tireless efforts of a tireless team at the
Goethe Institut. Jutta
Brendemühl, first under the direction of
Dr. Arpad Soelter and now under Sonja Griegoschewsky, is carving
out partnerships in the Canadian cultural landscape that honours
Germany’s legacy and
philosophy of great art and intercultural
exchange. This became especially apparent at the after-reception
when who is who in the political and cultural arena mingled and
gave glowing speeches of this unusual co-operation. A true first
was celebrated and we hope it was not a last one. SFR.
|
|