WESTERN EUROPEAN STAGES

Volume 20, Number 2

Spring 2008

Editor
Marvin Carlson

Contributing Editors
Christopher Balme
Miriam DAponte
Marion P. Holt
Glenn Loney
Daniele Vianello

Harry Carlson
Maria M. Delgado
Barry Daniels
Yvonne Shafer
Phyllis Zatlin

Editorial Staff
Kevin Byrne, Managing Editor
Benjamin Spatz, Editorial Assistant

Dimiter Gotscheff. Photo: Deutsches Theater.

Martin E. Segal Theatre Center

Professor Daniel Gerould, Executive Director
Professor Edwin Wilson, Chairman, Advisory Board
Jan Stenzel, Director of Administration
Frank Hentschker, Director of Programs
Boris Dauss Pastor, Circulation Manager
Martin E. Segal Theatre Center-Copyright 2008
ISSN # 1050-1991

To the Reader
In this issue, as is our custom in the Spring edition of the journal, we include an index of the material in
the three issues of the previous year. We look forward in the spring of 2009 to issuing a ten-year index, as we did
following our first ten years of publication. The present issue includes as usual reports on recent theatre events
in several of the leading theatre centers of Western Europe. Occasionally we publish more than one report on a
production of particular interest, so as to offer several perspectives. Thus we include here a second report, following that in our Winter issue, on the recent production of Schillers Wallenstein in Berlin, directed by Peter
Stein. This long-anticipated project, the first by Stein in his native country in many years, was a major national
and international event and deserved, we felt, special coverage.
For the upcoming Fall issue, we will as usual feature reports on European festivals, and we welcome
submissions on such activity as well as other reports or interviews concerned with recent work of interest anywhere in Western Europe. Subscriptions and queries about possible contributions should be addressed to the
Editor, Western European Stages, Theatre Program, CUNY Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY;
or to mcarlson@gc.cuny.edu.

Martin E. Segal Theatre Center Journals are available online from ProQuest Information and
Learning as abstracts via the ProQuest information service and the International Index to the
Performing Arts. www.il.proquest.com.
All Journals are indexed in the MLA International Bibliography and are members of the Council
of Editors of Learned Journals.

Table of Contents
Spring 2008
2008
Spring

Volume 20, Number 2

Genia
Genia Enzelberger
Enzelberger

Spring in Berlin

Marvin
Marvin Carlson
Carlson

Wallenstein

William Grange
Grange
William

21
21

Paris Theatre, JanuaryApril 2008

Barry Daniels

25

April in Paris: In Search of the Past

Phyllis Zatlin
Zatlin
Phyllis

31
31

Maria M. Delgado

37

Phyllis Zatlin
Zatlin
Phyllis

41
41

Johann Kresniks The Ring in Bonn

Barcelons: Revisiting the Classics

The Past is Present: Mayorga and Morote on the Madrid Stage

Annual Index

45

Contributors

59
59

Wagners Der Ring, directed by Johann Kresnik. Photo: Bonn Opera.

Johann Kresniks The Ring in Bonn

Genia Enzelberger
Johann Kresnik has been internationally
active as a choreographer and director since 1967.
After working in Bremen, Heidelberg, and at the
Volksbhne in Berlin, he and his ensemble were
engaged at the opera in Bonn. Der Ring is Kresnik
and his dancerss last production, as the ensemble
has been forced to separate for financial reasons at
the end of the 200708 season.
I will begin with a few words concerning
Johann Kresniks aesthetic approach and the content of his work. Kresnik received a traditional education in classical ballet. In the sixties he worked
as a solo dancer on the stage of Cologne together
with George Balanchine and John Cranko, among
other things. But Kresnik was unsatisfied with the
ballet which, according to his view, was mechanical and void of content, focusing upon upholding
conventional aesthetics while outside students
were in revolt and people were demonstrating in
the streets. Inspired by the not-purely-classical
choreography of Aurel Milloss or Maurice
Bjart, Kresnik moved further away from
classical academic dance, terminated his
active career as a solo dancer, and started to
choreograph his own works.
Milloss and Bjart must be mentioned when considering the work of Kresnik
since both have a tendency towards theatrical
effects. Their dance technique is strongly
expressive and theatrically accentuated but the
technique of classical academic dance is never
surrendered or renounced. Their inclination
toward a symbolic metaphorical language,
spectacle, sentimentality, pathos, and even
kitsch, as well as the desire to use shocking
effects and break taboos, allows them to bring
a variety of stylistic devices on stage.
In Kresniks first piece, O Sela Pei,
created in 1967, he adapted pieces of text concerning people suffering from schizophrenia
into choreography. This early piece shows typical characteristics of his work, beginning with
the topic. He does not choose classical ballet
material but is interested in politically and
socially critical topics. Kresnik does not
choose the material for his performances with
based on its appropriateness for choreography.
His decisions are solely based on his personal
interest; on the impact of the dance on politi-

cal and social development; and on his own conviction that it is important, here and now, to confront
oneself with these things.
The second characteristic of his choreography is that he does not develop a dramaturgically
linear plot but creates instead a collage of pictures
out of fragments. Thirdly, I believe, his work can be
referred to, even in its early stages, as intermedial
because he uses slide-projectors and connects dance
to language. In 1973 Kresnik first used the term
choreographic dance in connection with his piece
Traktate to distinguish himself from the conventional term Tanztheater (Dance theatre). With his
choreographic theater he wants to create a new
language of the body which he can use as means for
constructing his pictures. Simply stated, he uses the
classical academic dance vocabulary, supplements it
with material from modern dance, and then breaks
the entire thing up to create something entirely new.
In February 2008 Kresnik presented the

Wagners Der Ring. Photo: Bonn Opera.

final production of his ensemble, based on Richard

Wagners Der Ring des Nibelungen cycle, in Berlin.
Kresniks Ring was created in collaboration with the
painter and scenic designer Gottfried Helnwein,
who expresses himself in his works of art just as
politically as Kresnik. This is apparent with the
poster to the production, which was also created by
Helnwein: the head of an exhausted child lying in a
pool of blood, overwhelmed by a heap of Euro
coins. Kresnik and Helnwein argue on the topics
power and money, force and war. The four parts of
Wagners original cycle takes about fifteen hours to
perform. Kresniks collage of Siegfried and
Gtterdmmerung lasts only about an hour and ten
minutes. The music, arranged by Gernot
Schedlberger, is also cut down. He prepares a sound
carpet of Wagnerian quotations.
In this production the familiar story is not
retold accurately as might be expected. Rather,
Kresnik puts the story into the context of Wagners
biography and his cultural and social surroundings.
This is very typical of Kresniks work. When choosing the themes for his pieces, Kresnik dwells on the
fate of an individual, as could be seen in his Sylvia
Plath, Pasolini, Hannelore Kohl, and Ulrike
Meinhof. In The Ring Kresnik blends biographical
details with elements of the operas original story.
Contemporaries of Wagner appear, such as Ludwig
II, Cosima and Winifried Wagner, and also Wagner
himself. The production does not follow the chronological flow of the story but is rather a revue, a
round-dance of pictures. In fact Kresniks work can
be seen as an intertextual interpretation.
The stage and the decor play as important
a role as the actual choreography in implementing
Kresniks expressive pictures and ideas. Valhalla,
the castle of the gods, is represented as hospital
ward with blood-smeared walls and wounded soldiers are pulled into the sky. As Kresnik has said, I
am mainly concerned about the message of the
piece. The stage designer has to support the message
of the piece, has to find a realization for that together with me. To support his message, Kresnik utilizes all the technical means at his disposal. Film is
projected on screens and on human bodies as subtext for the scenes executed by the dancers. The prologue to Gtterdmmerung, for example, concerns
Wagners anti-Semitism and the exploitation of his
work by the Nazis.
The question may arise as to whether in

such examples we are dealing with intermedial relations between film and theatre or multimedia theatre? If we define intermediality as the simulation or
realization of one or more media conventions in
another medium, the question arises as to its distinguishing characteristic. Just the use of other media
(such as film, video, or slide- projection) in theatre
is not a guarantee for intermediality. For this the
established term multimedia theatre exists.
However the boundaries are in constant flux as multimedia theatre may follow an intermedial strategy,
even though this is not imperative. Thus film documents are used in the festivals in Bayreuth. One sees
Hitler rising in power and welcomed by Winifried
Wagner. The film clips are followed by others of
Konrad Adenauer, Federal Presidents Lbke, von
Weizscker and Rau, followed in turn by more current state appearances in Bayreuth, of figures like
State Chancellor Angela Merkel.
In the Gtterdmmerung prologue,
Kresnik combines the medium of theatre, which is
characterized by its evanescence, with a repeatable
medium, a Walt Disney film from the forties, placed
together to create a single image. The scene, similar
to a silent film, is accompanied live by two pianos
and is underlaid with tape-recorded anti-Semite
quotes from Wagner. There are various possible
approaches to the examination of this sequence. On
the one hand we are dealing here with a film-performance situation, similar to that in a movie theatre.The projection of the Disney movie in a theatre
piece, however, implies an essential differencein
format. In front of the screen, center stage, the actual theatrical scene is being performed: Wagner is
being written upon with swastikas. Thus the audience must constantly shift focus between the movie,
projected on the screen, and the happenings on
stage. Kresnik and Helnweins ring, a gilded automobile tire, descends at the end of the piece. An
automobile cemetary appears, dominated by a gilded Cadillac upstage. The contents of a large refrigerator, which has hung over the stage since the
beginning, pour out over the scene, suggesting the
products of Weimar as material for ongoing consumer culture.
With this fascinating and disturbing
work the company ends its influential and imaginative career and the stage in Germany in general
and Bonn in particular is made distinctly poorer
by its loss.

Spring in Berlin
Marvin Carlson
grimacing at the audience, their bodies padded and
held in grotesque shapes, their faces heavily made
up, many in dead white with features outlined in
black, their often red hair twisted into outlandish
shapes. Behind them a garish drop curtain brightens
in overlapping circles of light. The whole thing suggests a grotesque stage or film review of the pre-war
years, and indeed the production often specifically
cites the silent film tradition. Stefan Kurt as
Macheath, always elegantly dressed in a glittering
black suit, has the impeccably coifed hair, the delicate mustache, the rouged lips, and the distinctly
effeminate features of certain early male film idols
(his androgynous nature is further revealed by his
clear preference for female undergarments). In his
extended strutting walk with Lucy (Gitte Reppin)
upon his escape from jail, his view from the rear,
sporting his usual white cane, unmistakably echoes
the famous comic walk of Charlie Chaplin. Other
characters offer similar echoes, most notably
Christina Drechsler, who portrays Polly as a waiflike flapper, with mincing walk, fluttery gestures,
and Betty Boop makeup.
The recurring visual motif is of parallel

For Berlin theatregoers, the month of May

is dominated by the annual Theatertreffen, but there
are always a number of attractive other offerings for
those who wish to fill in nights between the festival
performances. Some of these in fact are Berlin productions that were nominated for the festival but did
not make the final cut. Among these, I was particularly eager to see Michael Thalheimers new production of Ibsens The Wild Duck, but its only performance in May was for a private party and so no
tickets were available. I was, however, able to see
the nominated Threepenny Opera, directed by
Robert Wilson at the Berliner Ensemble, currently
one of the most popular offerings in Berlin.
It was a delight to see Threepenny in the
theatre which saw its premiere performance,
although the current version is of course far from
anything Brecht could have imagined. The particular Wilson vision is everywhere apparent and if the
Brechtian social concerns are occasionally touched
upon, the overwhelming impression is of an interpretation filtered through the highly stylized and
now familiar Wilsonian style. This begins with a
grotesque parade of the characters across the stage,

Macheath and Polly in Threepenny Opera, directed by Robert Wilson. Photo: Berliner Ensemble.

Threepenny Opera. Photo: Berliner Ensemble.

the messengers peculiar costume. Much less effective was the emphasis throughout on very loud and
intrusive sound effectsa rattling noise as a drape
is pulled back, clomping footsteps of soldiers and
prison guards, clinking coins as money is transferred, heavy slurping and swallowing sounds as
Mrs. Peachum drinks. Not infrequently these distracted irritatingly from both the flow and effect of
the scene as a whole.
With few exceptions, the company performed quite effectively in Wilsons cartoonish
style, particularly the padded and grimacing
Peachums (Jrgen Holz and Traute Hoess), their
delicate daughter, and the formidable and sepulchral
Tiger Brown (Axel Werner). Despite a relatively
minor role as Jenny, the beloved Angelika Winkler
rivaled Kurt as the star of the production, a position
clearly acknowledged in the curtain calls. When
Winkler appeared in the Wilson/Berliner Ensemble
Winters Tale several years ago she effectively
blended into the Wilsonian world. Here her Jenny
seemed almost out of another play, a moving realistic performance with little of the arbitrary and
grotesque movements of her surrounding fellows.
Her singing of the Solomon song was the high point
of the evening, delivered with a conviction and

bands of light, most often occurring as long neon

strips between dark end pieces. In Peachums shop
these, horizontally, serve as rolling shelves for the
imagined costumes, and vertically, they create
Macheaths cell. Diagonally, creating a large
upstage triangle of vertical lines, they suggest a kind
of loft where Macheaths wedding takes place. Later
the vertical lines disappear to be replaced by an
evocative sliver of a moon and stars for the Moon
over Soho number. For some sequences the lines
are replaced by the familiar Wilsonian backdrop
washes of strong colors, as in the yellow, green, and
red brothel scenes or the muted blues behind the
scaffold. Particularly effective, and also typical of
Wilson, is the picking out of one or two faces with
the rest of the cast in silhouette behind, a device
used in each of the successful act finales. The effective ending was played for its full theatricalism. The
victorious messenger (Walter Schmidinger) came
pushing his way in among the black-clad cast in a
flamboyant red-velvet train complete with tassels,
and effect amusing in itself, but quite inspired when
the finale concluded with the appearance of a traditional theatre curtain (not previously seen in the production), which the audience immediately recognized as composed of precisely the same material as

honored figure and the new head of the famous

Burgtheater in Vienna, his production there of
Richard III, with the great Austrian artist Gert Voss,
was invited to the Theatertreffen. Today, twenty
years later, he is offering a new staging of this play,
which I attended not to compare it with the muchpraised 1987 version, which I did not see, but rather
with more recent Shakespearian revivals by younger
and more fashionable directors that are regularly
now a part of the Theatertreffen offerings.
Not surprisingly, I found the Peymann
interpretation had a distinctly conservative and oldfashioned feeling, not by American or English standards, where a number of production choices would
still seem quite radical, but certainly in contrast with
the most highly regarded recent German productions. In the years since Peymann was in fashion,
revivals of classics like Shakespeare have undergone at least two interpretive revolutions, first more
radical leftist readings, including the frequent use of
contemporary and sometimes live video and film
material and popular music, and then a variety of
approaches variously termed postmodern, deconstructive, or pop, which departed even more radically from the original text and offered a dark, largely cynical, and deeply ironic critique of the tradition
of high humanism with which these texts have been
associated in the German theatre.
In comparison, Peymanns Richard III is

intensity that confirmed her status as one of

Germanys most powerful actresses and at the same
time removed her almost entirely from the tonality
of the rest of the production.
I also attended Claus Peymanns Richard
III, also at the Berliner Ensemble. The Berliner
Ensemble today occupies a rather odd position
among Berlins major theatres. Thanks to Brecht,
its the best-known internationally and possesses a
faithful, if aging, audience that gives it the highest
attendance rating in the city (something like 95 percent of capacity). Nevertheless, it is not nearly so
highly regarded by more sophisticated theatregoers
or the critical establishment or governmental funding bodies as its major rivals: the Deutsches Theater,
the Volksbhne, or the Schaubhne. Emblematic of
this reputation is the theatres artistic director, Claus
Peymann, who during the 1970s and 1980s was
widely considered one of Germanys leading stage
artists, more often invited to the Theatertreffen than
any of his rivals, but who is now generally regarded, like his contemporary Peter Stein, as a figure of
primarily historical interest. It would be quite
unthinkable for a Peymann production today to be
even considered for a Theatertreffen slot, a situation
which in fact led Peymann, never opposed to controversy, to mount a competing spring theatre festival of his own several years ago.
In 1987, when Peymann was still a much

Elisabeth and margaret in Richard III, directed by Claus Peymann. Photo: Berliner Ensemble.

fairly straightforwardhis Richard (Ernst Sttzner)

a large, powerful, and darkly comic figure with a
pronounced hump and shuffling walk. Veit Schubert
plays Buckingham as a modern bureaucrat, whose
thin wire glasses and pursed lips nicely set off the
cruder Richard. Peymann is well aware of his theatres Brechtian past, and the presentational style,
closeness to the audience, and open staging all suggest the epic tradition. The stage designer was KarlErnst Herrmann, who has been associated with
Peymann for the last quarter-century, since his leadership of the theatre at Bochum and the Vienna
Burgtheater. Herrmann has always favored minimal
open spaces, and that is certainly the case here, the
stage space being defined by two walls of sliding
plastic panels whose surfaces reflect actors onstage
but also allow them to appear behind, a contrast that
the staging often uses. Other stage furnishings are
minimala large upstage rock sometimes used as a
chair, an actual chair (tall and abstract in a distinctly Robert Wilson style) used for the throne, the
Queens dressing table, and, most strikingly, a tall,
glass fronted refrigerator, generally the most obvious staging element.
Two elements in the staging seemed to me
to suggest Peymanns nod to more current, ironic
staging practices. One was the appearance of
Richmond (Boris Jacoby) posturing and gesturing in
pantomime upstage as flashes of light suggested a
major photo op. The other was the refrigerator, at
first used to provide champagne for the various
court gatherings, and later, somewhat inexplicably,
to serve as a place to store the crown like a piece of
delicate confectionary, and later still, for the whole
second half of the play, offering cold storage for the
head of Hastings, which Richard for some reason
decided to keep on regular display.
On the whole, however, both staging and
acting suggested a more traditional blend of
Peymanns own engaged style and the Berliner
Ensemble tradition. This is perhaps most obvious in
Nicole Heesters powerful Queen Margaret. With
her intensity, her shaven head, her grey trench coat
over a ragged dress, and her heavy shoes, she seems
more like a variation of a radicalized Mother
Courage than a figure out of Shakespeare, and she
quite takes the focus from the rather bland Anne of
Charlotte Mller and the charming but light-headed
Queen Elisabeth of Therese Affolter.
Christoph Marthaler has for some years
been regularly represented in the Theatertreffen, and
this year he mounted the festivals closing produc-

tion, Platz Mangel, from Zurich. I was also able to

attend a production of his Maeterlinck, created in
Ghent in the Spring of 2007 and presented a year
later at Berlins Hebbel theatre, which frequently
hosts touring productions. Marthaler has always
claimed a special relationship to the static theatre of
Maeterlinck, and indeed his first opera staging was
of Pellas et Mlisande at the Frankfurt Opera in
1994. Asked to create an homage production for
Ghent, Marthaler typically did not stage a particular
Maeterlinck work but rather presented a musical
meditation on Maeterlinckian themes set in a dim,
cluttered Flemish textile workshop at the time the
Flemish author was writing. Marthalers usual
designer, Anna Viebrock, created one of her marvelous grim quasi-industrial settings, full of mindless workers, though fewer than is usual for
Marthaler. Four women bent over sewing machines
in a central pit with numerous supervisors, several
male and one female, watching their work.
Apparently to pass the time they sing popular songs
as well as classic selections from Purcell to Bizet.
Carmen, another depiction of a factory girl, is
extensively quoted. What might have developed as
a political production instead, much more commonplace in a Marthaler piece, emphasized the melancholy, dreams, and humanity of these humble figures, with passages from Maeterlinks plays woven
through the text. On a raised platform on the side a
pianist provides musical accompaniment for most of
the songs. He is skillful, but neutral as an actor,
completely lacking the bravura comic approach of
Marthalers usual pianist-performer, Jrg
Kienberger.
Indeed the production as a whole had very
little of the wit and humor that is usually a part of
Marthalers complex tonality. Only in one sequence,
rather late in the performance, where the managers
sit among the working girls and join them in a series
of foolish traditional camp songs, often in odd and
unexpected vocal registers, does the production take
on a particularly humorous edge. For the most part
its tone matches a different one often found in
Marthaler, a kind of melancholic quiet desperation,
relieved primarily by the beauty of the carefully
trained choral voices. When this subdued tone is
interrupted, it is much more likely to be by violence
than by humor, as when, on two occasions, a worker gets fabric jammed in her machine, tugs at it frantically, and causes a short with a flash of electrical
power that knocks her unconscious to the floor. As
in Maeterlinck, death hovers very close to these

10

Maeterlinck, directed by Christoph Marthaler. Photo: Hebbel Theater.

break from operatic tradition in Bergs musical version, here presents an encounter with both texts, a
striking reinterpretation of the familiar material lasting just under an hour. Bert Neumann, whose
unconventional settings have added greatly to the
effect of leading Volksbhne directors Frank Castorf
and Ren Pollesch, has designed for Martons production a powerful intimate space. A small stage at
one end of the theatre evokes a recording studio,
with piano and electronic gear to the left and a door
behind leading into the small inner studio. We can
see into it through a glass wall upstage to the right.
Extending out into the audience from the center of
the stage is a kind of Japanese flower walk, dividing
most of the audience seating, which totals well
under a hundred places.
Marton reduces his cast to three, Max
Hopp as Wozzeck and Yelena Kuljic as Marie, or
perhaps they are contemporary musical artists who
are recording selections from Bergs opera featuring
these characters. The third performer is Sir Henry,
one of Berlins most familiar experimental composers and musical directors, whose work is often
featured at this theatre and elsewhere and who
appears onstage from time to time displaying considerable acting skills as well. Here he plays, of
course, the studio director and accompanist: sometimes giving directions to the singers (usually in

poor exploited souls.

A surprisingly large number of the most
highly praised directors in Germany today are
between forty and fifty years of age, as may be clear
in this years Theatertreffen. The festival drew
some complaint for its lack of encouragement of
new talent, since seven of its ten productions were
by directors in this age group, all of them previously selected, some several times, in earlier festivals.
The only director under thirty was a non-German
team who did not in fact create a play but an ongoing installation.
I asked Christel Weiler, a knowledgeable
Berlin friend, about this lack of young directors, a
phenomenon I cannot remember occurring in my
almost forty years of German theatre-going. She
confirmed that at the moment emerging directors
seemed fewer than usual. She did mention two
names, David Marton and Laurent Chetouane.
Chetouane had nothing at present in production, but
her recommendation encouraged me to attend a
staging of Wozzeck by Marton in the small experimental Red Salon on the third floor of the
Volksbhne, which is still Berlins most popular
major theatre for youthful and more adventurous
audiences.
Marton, recalling the radical innovations
of Bchners original work as well as the extreme

11

Wozzeck, directed by David Marton. Photo: Volksbhne.

song about suffering among the audience at the foot

of the flower walk. In another sequence Sir Henry
rapidly sketches on the glass an outline figure of
Wozzeck as Wozzeck sings behind, with graphic
flourishes that turn him into a kind-of living graffiti.
Marton, I understand, has been compared
with Marthaler because of his musical interest.
Judging from this single work, he is more fragmentary, more jagged, and more concerned with contemporary technology than Marthaler. I would associate him more with Stefan Pucher, himself a former
DJ, and other younger directors who have been
called the new pop generation by German critics.
In any case, he seems to be both drawing upon the
Volksbhne tradition of innovative work while
developing his own distinctive and original dramatic voice.
Seven years ago Bernd Wilms, the director
of Berlins Maxim Gorki Theatre, was appointed
director of the larger and more prestigious
Deutsches. The appointment aroused criticism in
some quarters, because under Wilms the Gorki had
for some years specialized in rather undistinguished
productions of conventional classics. To everyones
surprise, however, his regime at the Deutsches has
been extremely noteworthy. The already distinguished ensemble has been strengthened, and perhaps even more important, the productions of a

whispered English), sometimes abandoning himself

to their flights of instability in and out of character,
sometimes introducing (apparently for his own
amusement) bits of Chopin or other familiar traditional composers, and occasionally indulging in
such Chico Marxtype displays as lying on top of
the piano and playing over his head upside down.
The production continually mixes material
from the two original works with a very wide variety of pop-culture references. The degenerating
relationship between Wozzeck and Mariefrom his
first suspicions, through the discovery of the
found jewelry, to her killing and the disposal of
the knifeprovides an overarching pattern of
action, but it is interrupted by all sorts of musical
and dramatic digressions. Among the most striking
of these are a series of sequences where Sir Henry
plays a radio DJ reporting on breaking, mostly catastrophic news events and also taking phone calls
from various American locations. People pose
mindless questions to guest-interviewee Marie, who
responds in rapid, unintelligible gibberish.
The enclosed and soundproof glass booth
allows another continuing alternative reality, most
strikingly in the climactic sequence of Maries
death. We see Wozzeck stabbing an invisible Marie
behind the glass window splattered with her blood
while the still-living Marie delivers a heavy rock

12

number of major directors, led by Michael

Thalheimer, Jrgen Gosch, and Dimiter Gotschoff,
have brought this theatre to a position of dominance
in the city and thus in Germany as a whole. Two of
the ten outstanding German language productions
selected for this years Theatertreffen were from
Berlin, and both from the Deutsches: Goschs Uncle
Vanya and Thalheimers Die Ratten.
The last mainstage production of the
Wilms regime took place on 9 May, following
which the theatre was closed for a remodeling lasting until the beginning of December. The departure
was celebrated with fireworks and an open air banquet in the main courtyard of the theatre, surrounded by statues of major directors of the past. I had
already seen Thalheimers Emilia Galotti, on the
main stage that evening, but marked the occasion
with a visit to the small Kammerspiele which was
presenting Heiner Mllers Hamletmaschine, directed by Dimiter Gotscheff.
As is typical with Gotscheff productions,
the physical setting, designed by Mark Lammert,
was minimal. The surprisingly large stage area of
the Kammerspiele was open to the back wall, entirely in black with two matching rows of five gravelike openings painted white in the stage floor running front to back. The text was also minimal, a simple, generally straightforward reading of Mllers
text running just under one hour. The most striking
thing about the production was that the leader of the

three-person cast was the director himself, the first

time I have seen him onstage, in a dark grey suit
with light grey hair in a rather Andy Warholstyle.
He was not, of course, in the same league as the
leading actors at the Deutsches, now widely considered the most powerful ensemble in Germany, but
his delivery of Mllers dense and challenging text,
sometimes echoed from offstage by an English
translation, was intense and powerful. He also presented the majority of this text, with only one
extended passage each delivered by Gotscheffs
younger companions, the red-clad Hamlet figure of
Alexander Khuon and the yellow-gowned Ophelia
figure of Valery Tscheplanova. All maintained a
close contact with the audience, from which they
emerged at the opening and into which they retired
at the end. Many of the lines were delivered directly out, varied by circular movement around the open
graves.
Gotscheffs production of Aeschylus The
Persians, though presented on the much larger
mainstage of the Deutsches, was also designed by
Lammert and is similarly minimalist, with the major
emphasis upon the actors. One of the surprising features of the production is the occasional light touches, particularly the opening sequence, a kind-of pantomime shadow-play on the struggle for space or
territory. The single piece of scenery is a large lightcolored wall, eight- or nine-feet-high, perhaps twenty-five to thirty-feet-long and perhaps two-feet

Heiner Mllers Hamletmaschine, directed by Dimiter Gottscheff. Photo: Kammerspiele.

13

Aeschyluss The Persians, directed by Dimiter Gottscheff. Photo: Deutsches Theater.

thick. At the beginning it is turned so that the narrow

end faces the audience, and the two male actors
(Samuel Finzi and Wolfram Koch) carry out an
extended sequence where each tries to cheat the
wall a bit into the others territory, culminating at
last in a mindless spinning of the rotating barrier,
exhausting both and empowering neither, a striking
wordless prologue to this first Western drama on territorial conflict.
Margit Bendokat is a surprisingly intimate
and conversational chorus, and she immediately
established a warm and close relationship with the
audience. Almut Zilcher as Atossa similarly portrays the suffering queen with a contemporary psychological edge. Both are quite effective, but the
evening clearly belongs to the two men and particularly to their final extended speeches: Koch as the
sorrowful and repentant ghost of Darius and Finzi as
the arrogant and self-aggrandizing Xerxes. Both
remain almost motionless for these extended
speeches against the neutral background, the emotional power of their presentation relying to some
extent upon the powerful and subtly shifting lighting of Olaf Freese, but much more directly upon the
remarkable vocal range displayed by both actors.
The quiet intensity of Koch enthralls the audience
but the range and power of Finzis delivery quite
overshadows this. His lengthy speech continually
grows in passion and power, and when it seems that
no additional intensity of vocal technique were possible, he shifts into a kind of aria, with steadily rising vocal tones, for an almost operatic conclusion.
The audience greeted the conclusion with thunder-

ous applause, some rising to their feet (a gesture far

less common in Germany than in the United States)
as a well-deserved tribute for this astonishing performance.
Having attended the Deutsches, the
Volksbhne, and the Berliner Ensemble, I rounded
out my visits to Berlins leading theatres with an
evening at the Schaubhne. Falk Richter was offering his Cherry Orchard, the latest in a Chekhov
series he is presenting at this theatre. Like the others, it offers a radical updating of Chekhov, his prerevolution lost souls now lost in the rapidly evolving and equally unmanageable world of late capitalism. Although the general pattern of character relationships and scene-to-scene events follows the
original fairly closely, the text, adapted by the
director from a rough translation by Christine
zmen-Flor continually surprises and shocks by its
contemporary idioms. This is not just a matter of
current slang and casual profanity, although these
appear in abundance, but more fundamentally in the
current details and specificity of reference, especially in the longer speeches. The Ranjevskaia household is portrayed as a group of aging hippies, still
lost in the sensual tripping of the late-1960s. From
time to time they bring out their guitars, finger bells
and other 1960s musical paraphernalia to evoke the
other-worldliness of that era. If that remains the
world of Ranjevskaia (Bibiana Beglau) and Gaev
(Kay Bartholomus Schulze), however, Anja (Eva
Mackbach) and Trofimov (Mark Waschke) are
much more conversant with contemporary political
discourse. The groups wonderful abstract discus-

14

continues. There is already a distinct non-realistic

note at the opening, when the characters enter a
nursery where the floor and furnishings are totally
covered with thick white fur rugs and the walls are
mirrors (Katrin Hoffmann designed the setting).
For the final two acts, the rugs are piled in a small
mountain against a side wall (recalling a similar
effect in the much-honored Munich Three Sisters
last season), leaving an open downstage area separated by dark columns from a large upstage area in
front of a mirrored wall, where the party (with
dozens of extras) takes place. At the party, the
small magic tricks of Charlotta (Steffi Khnert) are
presented as major theatrical spectacles, with
bursts of colored lights, clouds of smoke, life-sized
sheep (who, as in the first act, are suddenly and
mysteriously stripped of their white coats), and
elaborate use of flying machines suggesting a Las
Vegas floor show.
The final act moves even further from a
realistic base. When Lopachin takes over the estate,
the workmen who in Chekhov begin cutting down
the trees offstage here enter the scene itself and
begin dismantling it, first taking up and stacking
sections of the polished floor, then removing the
dark midstage columns, and finally breaking up and
taking away sections of the mirrored wall at the
back, as the final actions of the play go on around
them. They stop only when Lopachin, as in

sion of the future at the end of the second act

replaces the fuzzy optimism of Chekhovs original
with an equally abstract but contemporary jargonridden evocation of the theoretical language of latecapitalist cultural analysis.
This updating of the work provides significant shifts in motivation, most of which work surprisingly well. Lopachin (Bruno Cathomas) is dismissed by Gaev because he is crude and low-class
and by Trofimov because he represents the consuming capitalism, concerns that are certainly present in
Chekhovs work but take on a different resonance
when moved to the current world. Gaevs horror at
sharing this world with fat and ugly consumers
pushing their pampered babies around the former
cherry orchard becomes not merely a resistance to
change, but a more familiar aesthetic and social
complaint against the social and economic effects of
gentrification. Money moves to an even more central position, and not only because Trofimov constantly harps upon it. Lopachins inability to propose to Varja (Elzemarieke de Vos) still reflects a
tension over social differences but seems equally
due to the fact that he remains primarily focused
upon his financial concerns.
Here, as in Richters other Chekhovs, one
is struck not only by the updating but also by the
extreme theatricality of the interpretation, which
becomes more and more striking as the evening

Chekhovs Cherry Orchard, directed by Falk Richter. Photo: Schabuhne.

15

Chekhov, calls a halt to their activities until the family has departed. In all of this chaos and destruction
a particularly poignant moment occurs when
Ranjevskaia and Gaev rush onto the stage pulling a
young, blossoming cherry tree with bagged roots.
As the chopping begins offstage, they use small
hatchets to chop up and remove a section of the
stage floor, revealing dirt underneath, into which
they set the tree as a final defiant defense of the
orchard. It remains upright for only a brief period.
When the workers come onstage a few minutes later
to begin their dismantling, they tramp down the frail
tree, almost without noticing, and it lies there for the
rest of the production. At the end, the forgotten Firs
emerges from the pile of furs and, giving his final
lines, stretches out to die on the pile of removed
columns upstage, he and the uprooted cherry tree
the last dying remnants of the old order.
Normally when I am in Berlin, there are so
many attractive offerings in the city theatres that I
am not tempted to travel further afield, but this
spring I did decide to go out to the Hans Otto
Theater in nearby Potsdam to attend a very special
theatre event there. This spring Intendant Uwe Eric
Laufenberg staged there the first dramatization in
Germany, or indeed in the world, of the famous and
highly controversial novel by Salman Rushdie, The
Satanic Verses. Rushdie became one of the bestknown literary figures in the world when in 1998
the Iranian chief of state pronounced a death sentence upon him for the irreverent depiction of the
prophet Mohammed in this novel. Rushdie for a
time went into hiding, but has become a much more
visible international figure in recent years. Although
the call for his death was renewed in 2007, he was
also knighted that year by Elizabeth II and given a
five-year contract as writer-in-residence at Emory
University.
Although international demonstrations for
and against Rushdie have diminished in recent
years, it is hardly surprising that notices about the
theatricalization of his novel in the German press
were far more concerned with possible protests than
with the staging itself. It may well be that such concerns in part explain the presentation of the work in
relatively isolated and affluent Potsdam rather than
in Berlin, with its considerably more substantial if
on the whole fairly secular Muslim population. In
fact, though, director Laufenberg has during his
administration regularly presented challenging and
daring works, even if he receives only occasional
attention from the daily press, which shows rela-

tively little interest in theatrical work outside such

major centers as Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, and
occasionally Vienna.
Despite a much-publicized police presence
at the opening, the production in fact has aroused little or no protest. The night I attended, although it
had not been performed for several weeks, there was
a small audience. I had not yet seen the handsome
new Hans Otto Theater, and found it a very impressive structure somewhat reminiscent, though on a
vastly small scale, of the famous Sydney Opera
House in its bold and sweeping lines, its prominent
position overlooking the water, and the sweeping
marine views from its spacious lobbies. The auditorium too is impressive if not large, with a kind-of
modified thrust stage and a sweeping, single tier
auditorium. The color scheme within and without is
bold red and black.
Sad to say, I found the building rather more
impressive than the production itself. It is an ambitious undertaking, dealing with every major
sequence in Rushdies sprawling and multifaceted
fantasy, and runs nearly four hours at a time when
productions of this length are almost as uncommon
in Germany as they are in the United States.
Interestingly, Laufenberg has placed the Rushdie
adaptation in repertory with the first part of
Goethes Faust, another four-hour marathon. In his
opening letter to season subscribers, director
Laufenberg quoted Goethes observation that metamorphosis was the guiding principle of his thinking,
and suggested that this concept was what inspired
the bringing together of the Goethe and Rushdie
works. Finding the first part of Goethes Faust more
satisfactory in scenic and dramatic power than the
second part, Laufenberg proposed presenting the
Satanic Verses as today a more valid and more
modern continuation of Faust I, what might be
called a modern Faust II. Not having seen the
Laufenberg Faust I, it is difficult for me to evaluate
this claim, but on the whole I felt that his staging of
The Satanic Verses suffered from the same problems
that I have often seen in stagings of Goethes Faust
IIthat the attempted conversion of a text whose
power relies heavily on verbal complexity and a
dense pattern of historical and mythological references cannot very readily or successfully be converted into the more visual and concentrated medium of theatrical presentation. The result is often a
flattening-out and coarsening of the original, which
seemed to me precisely the case here.
The physical conversion of Chamcha

16

(Tobias Rott) into a devil, complete with horns,

hooves, thick body hair, and an enormous penis, is a
clear case in point (fittingly, he also plays
Mephistopheles in the Laufenberg Faust). The audience is far more attentive to his bare buttocks and
the manipulations of his phallus than to the point of
the metamorphosis (I have seen the same problem in
stagings of the famous Kafka short story), and the
fact that Rott finds it almost impossible to walk on
the built-up hooves creates blocking and acting
problems that become the center of attention in
these scenes.
A similar kind of literalness flattens much
of the performance, rather like attempting to convert
a work of magic realism to literal physical presentation. The Everest conquered by Alleluja Cone (the
highly talented Anne Lebinsky) is simply a jagged
pile of rocks permanently set on the left side of the
stage and easily trampled over by a variety of other
characters in other situations. Projections of mountain ranges behind it establish it as Everest, but not
in a very effective way.
Designer Matthias Schaller has created a
unit setting on the large Hans Otto stage which is
basically open, often littered with debris from an
exploded aircraft and whose elements remain fairly
fixed. It consists of large neutral walls and archways on the side, the small rocky mountaintop to the
left, and behind it a screen where rather straightforward images help confirm the settingsmountain-

tops for Everest, desert scenes for the fictive Arabic

location of Jahilia, train tracks for traveling scenes.
The most effective use of this area is a sequence of
animations showing Arab and American combatants
struggling in front of various backgrounds, such as
the Eiffel Tower or the Pyramids.
The most attractive part of the production
is in the acting of Laufenbergs talented company.
Robert Gallinowski, unencumbered by anything
like Rotts grotesque satyr costume, presents a
rather abstract but always interesting Gibril as well
as an engaging if somewhat befuddled Mahound.
Nicole Schubert and Mortiz Fhrmann as
Chamchas befuddled wife and her lover play these
and a variety of other roles engagingly and
Lebinsky as Cone exerts as powerful an influence
on the audience as on her stage admirers, but most
of the rapidly sketched characters have a rather thin,
cartoonish quality that gives this bold project more
the feeling of a review than of a serious engagement
with a major literary work, least of all a contemporary Faust.
For my final evening in Berlin, I returned
to the experimental Hebbel theatre for the most
recent work of one of the citys most interesting and
experimental companies, Rimini Protokoll, of
which the first book-length study has just appeared.
Rimini Protokoll regularly and innovatively
explores the tenuous boundary between theatre and
real life, often incorporating the real stories and

Salman Rushdies The Satanic Verses, directed by Uwe Eric Laufenberg. Photo: Hans Otto Theater.

17

Rushdies The Satanic Verses. Photo: Hans Otto Theater.

brought in participant Michael Kleeberg. Two participants also brought dogs and the youngest member was Julian Maszota, born in January of 2007 and
selected by her mother, who was officially number
thirty-eight.
Upon entering the theatre, audience members were given a paperback-sized book containing
the statistical breakdown of the chain and two pages
of information on each member, listed in the order
they were selected. Each had a full-page picture
showing them holding a yellow cube with their percent number, 1-100; and another page which listed
their name, their home area in Berlin, their age
range (nine groupings from 0-6 to 65 and over), and
their response to five questions: How are you different from others? How can you be recognized
onstage? (most carried an object of some kind,
though some wore distinctive clothing), What
question would you ask the other participants?
What is the largest group of which you are a member? and Who selected you and why? Since this
last question almost always referred back to the previous participant, the idea of the self-created chain
was continually reinforced. Indeed the production
was subtitled a statistical chain-reaction by Rimini
Protokoll.
The production began with an empty stage

even the real bodies of persons outside the theatre.

Their Wallenstein, casting prominent non-actor citizens of Weimar as characters in Schillers play, or
CallCutta, providing participants with walking
tours of the Kreuzberg district directed by cell
phone from an international operator in India, were
fascinating and totally different performance experiences. 100 Prozent Berlin, approaches their central
interest from another direction. The concept was to
assemble one hundred citizens (not actors) who statistically represented the population of the city
based on the 2007 census, with the correct proportions of males to females, age groups, family positions (married, mother, etc.), ethnicities, and locations within the city. For the first time, Rimini
Protokoll did not select its participants, but chose
only a single Berliner, Thomas Gerlach of Treptow,
who then chose the next participant, and so on.
When certain groups were filled, these were eliminated as possible choices, and so selection became
somewhat more restricted as the total was neared. In
a few cases, already selected participants were
asked to name a second addition to the chain, representing a particular age group, ethnicity, or area of
the city. In a single case, when a man over 65 was
needed from Steglitz, an advertisement was placed
in the newspaper, the Berliner Zeitung, which

18

evening, since we had continually the head-on view

of particular bodies and the more abstract pattern of
the tops of heads on the projection. Early on, for
example, participants were asked to place themselves in the circle with the youngest at the center,
the oldest around the rim, and upon the circle was
imposed bulls eye target scheme which gave a very
clear picture of their distribution. Variations of this
device followed, when, for example, participants
stepped forward to the microphones and asked various questions about the lifestyles or opinions of
their fellows. From above the stage descended two
large signs I and Not-I so that each participant
moved to one side of the stage or the other depending on their answer to the question. Since this choice
was also reflected on the projections, the effect was
that of a constantly shifting, living pie chart whose
elements are not dots but living human (and a few
canine) bodies. Here too the effect was increased by
occasional use of actual superimposed pie
charttype divisions on the projection.
The second section of the evening was less
technological, and rather less interesting.
Accompanied by a klezmer band playing a Berlin
melody, the hundred participants arranged themselves on bleachers filling the stage and, by holding
up various colored sheets of paper rather in the

and a microphone down-center. The first chainmember, Thomas Gerlach, then came onstage and
gave a brief introduction to the project. As he was
speaking, his daughter Anne-Marie, his own selection, joined him, followed by her selection, best
friend Zielka Tabea. From this time on, each new
arrival briefly introduced themselves, frequently
with a sentence or two about their interests or hobbies. As each spoke, new members of the chain
would appear to their right so that there were always
one or two waiting their turn at the microphone.
When finished, they did not step away, but remained
in position, slowly being moved to the left by the
gradual turning of the large turntable which can be
found in any major German stage.
High up at the rear of the space was a large
blank circle, which when the participants begin to
appear was revealed as a projection from a camera
mounted above the stage, and showing only the
revolving turntable, painted green. So as the hundred Berliners gradually filled this circle, we saw
them not only from a frontal perspective, but as the
steadily growing outer ring of the slowly revolving
circle projected on the back wall. Identical projections were provided to the right and left of the auditorium at the balcony level. Visually, this circle created the most interesting and original device of the

100 Prozent Berlin by Rimini Protokoll. Photo: Hebbel Theater.

19

manner of orchestrated fans at a football game,

responded to various projected questionsusually
with a yes or no but occasionally with multiple
selections. Some were personal, such as Do you
have children? Do you want children? Are you
nervous? or Have you ever broken the law?
Others touched upon social or religious beliefs.
Near the end the audience was encouraged (not very
successfully the night I attended) to ask a question
or two of its own, which was answered by a random
quotation from the yellow book we were given at

the outset. The production ended with the entire

company slowly rotating on the revolving stage,
accompanied by the small orchestra.
As is often the case with Rimini Protokoll
experiments, the classification of this work is challengingtheatre, life, social document, happening,
chance event. It is however precisely the exploration of those boundaries that stands at the center
of the ongoing work of one of Berlins most original
and innovative performance collectives.

100 Prozent Berlin. Photo: Hebbel Theater.

20

Wallenstein
William Grange
duction featured the German theatres most prominent director, who now finds himself on the margins
of acceptability by the German theatre establishment. It was also a commercial undertaking, incorporated (with some subsidy) as a legitimate enterprise, budgeted at about $6.5 million. And yet it was
scheduled to run only twenty-eight performances
and solely on weekends. In other words, this production was more than just a well-publicized
encounter between a directors vision for a cultural
icon and the audiences expectations. It was an
event.
Prior to the premiere, several cultural
watchdogs in Germany had begun accusing the participants of attempting just that, an event that would
essentially become a publicity stunt. Many claimed
that director Stein, actor Brandauer, and even Claus
Peymann (whose Berliner Ensemble functioned as
co-producer, providing salaries for many of the
actors, their costumes, and most of the productions
publicity) were allowing show business values to
intrude upon considerations of both art and cultural
integrity. After all, this is a city whose financial situation is catastrophic. What business does Berlin
have subsidizing a star turn, and for an aging star
who is Austrian to boot, and whose days as a rogue
hero are doubtless behind him?

Rarely has a new production of an old play

attracted the kind of international attention as did
the premiere of Wallenstein: ein dramatisches
Gedicht (Wallenstein: a dramatic poem, usually
translated as The Wallenstein Trilogy) by Friedrich
Schiller, directed by Peter Stein and starring KlausMaria Brandauer. The refurbished main fermentation hall and cold storage warehouse of the defunct
Kindl brewery in Neuklln, a working-class borough of Berlin, is admittedly an improbable venue
for an occasion that attracted film and television
celebrities, major government officials, sports stars,
and serious theatregoers from all over the country.
These individuals furthermore knew what kind of
arduous ordeal lay ahead of them: an eleven-hour
extravaganza, endured on narrow metal seats, broken up by four intermissions. They awaited a trilogy most had read in high school, usually under compunction; not only were they compelled to read it,
but they also had to memorize some of the plays
better known passages. It contains some of
Schillers most elevated language and frequently
quoted aphorisms: The dictates of the heart are the
voice of fate, War is an unseemly, forceful handiwork, I know my boys from Pappenheim! or
When the wine goes in, strange things come out.
Beyond the epigrammatic value of the play, the pro-

Friedrich Schillers Wallenstein, directed by Peter Stein. Photo: Monika Ritterhaus.

21

Schillers Wallenstein. Photo: Monika Ritterhaus.

Wallensteins daughter Thekla are casualties of the

conflict, and Wallenstein lies murdered in his own
bed by Buttler, the Irish chief of Wallensteins dragoon regiments.
In between have come a torrents of words,
beginning with the trilogys prelude (read by actor
Walter Schimminger), followed by Wallensteins
Camp in knittel verse, rhymed couplets that are
sung, preached, shouted, and murmured by an entire
host of soldiers, hangers-on, and camp followers in
a snow storm. The stage picture is indeed stunning,
set on the entirety of the purpose-built Kindl stage,
one measuring approximately 130feet wide by
about eighty feet in depth. Subsequent scenes lack
the first ones ability to ravish the eye, since designer Ferdinand Wgerbauers mobile and electrified
wall units serve mostly to delimit the enormous
stage space. Circumscription is of course necessary
at times, since many of the plays scenes have only
two or three people. Technical director Uwe
Arsands stage crew were superbly rehearsed and
trained for the job of getting over twenty major
scene changes executed in relatively brief periods of
time over what sometimes seemed like vast dis-

The response to such questions lies with

Steins intentions for the production and ultimately
with the achievement he attained in pulling the
whole enterprise off successfully. The director saw
distinct contemporary significance in the trilogy
since, as he stated, Schillers Wallenstein is a noteworthy description of political confusion. It fits
every situation, especially today, he said. At the
core of his directorial intention was Schillers conception of Europe, which in the trilogys second
play The Piccolomini takes pride of place. In the
long discursive deliberations of Wallensteins lieutenant general of Octavio Piccolomini, Europe is an
idea. It could become the culmination of a striving
for the welfare of all and the common weal, no
longer the aggrandizement of one. Piccolomini is
speaking of the Kaiser at the time, but ultimately (in
Wallensteins Death) the aggrandizement of one,
namely Wallenstein himself, becomes his target. Yet
aggrandizement combined with superstition consumes nearly the whole of The Piccolomini and
most of the trilogys third play Wallensteins Death
before Piccolomini hits his bulls-eye. By that time,
all striving has ceased, his son Max and

22

his destiny, tossed between the planets and the stars:

The empire of Saturnus is gone by;/ Lord of the
secret birth of things is he;/ The time is oer of
brooding and contrivance,/ For Jupiter, the lustrous,
lordeth now,/ And the dark work, complete of preparation,/ He draws by force into the realm of light.
American audience members, though they might
understand German, imagined a play written by
Thomas Jefferson, perhaps fueled by the imagery of
Nathaniel Hawthorne. Brandauer rarely did anything predictable with such language; his vocal
range has rarely been on display in films as much as
it was in this enormous makeshift theatre space.
While his movement was at times stiff (and not only
because he was frequently in the suit of armor), his
vocal delivery was fluid and resonant. Matching
Brandauer almost scene for scene (if not minute by
minute, since their roles are smaller) are the supporting leads: the aforementioned Octavio
Piccolomini (Peter Fitz), Count Terzky (Daniel
Friedrich), Illo (Rainer Philippi), and Buttler
(Jrgen Holtz). These four characters remain
Wallensteins foils throughout the drama, often setting up hurdles for him to overcome. Holtz in particular gives an astonishing basso profundo per-

tances. The enormous stage space, combined with

Schillers poetic idiom, the lofty ideas he attempts
to place in historical context, and the sheer weight
and number of words make for a marathon that
compares favorably with Steins other lengthy productions.
These include a seven-hour staging of
Ibsens Peer Gynt in 1971, a nine-hour outdoor production of Aeschlylus The Oresteian Trilogy in
1980, and a twenty-onehour extravaganza of
Goethes Faust I and II for the Hannover Worlds
Fair in 2000. Wallenstein compares most importantly with the Faust production by way of its fidelity to
the texta feature which many critics at the
Worlds Fair condemned, ridiculing Stein as a kind
of cleric holding church services of the classics.
Wallenstein was certainly text-true, as the
Germans describe it, but it was by no means ecclesiastically hyper-realistic. That was especially
true of Brandauers performance in the title role.
Strutting about the stage in a suit of armor, with a
field marshalls baton and a psyche plagued by
doubt, the sixty-four-year-old Brandauer alternated
between a stalwart who holds the fate of nations in
his hands and a scabrous insomniac deliberating on

Schillers Wallenstein. Photo: Monika Ritterhaus.

23

formance as Wallensteins nemesis and killerand

his movement is even more restricted than
Brandauers. Leaning on a cane and often making
immobility a virtue, the seventy-four-year-old actor
momentarily went up on his lines on opening night.
But he soon found his balance and the rest of his
performance spun out flawlessly.
Does a production like this, with its enormous cost and limited run, signify anything important for the rest of German-language theatre? In the
immediate future, probably not. Its scope, star
power, and tightly reined focus almost match its
enormous budget. But it might betoken a slight nod
towards the viability of a performance that at times
accords with the written text. In most German productions, the words of the playwright are often at

wide variance with the productions values and performance style. They often battle each other
which has the odd effect of watching two dynamics
simultaneously at play: the directors desire to individuate the work, while the actors proceed
ineluctably to create characters tangentially related
to the words coming out of their mouths. A production like this, which sought to restrain the actors
within the confines of the written text, left many
audience members with the sensation that they were
hearing Schillers famous aphorisms for the first
time, though with a weird echo that came perhaps
from their school days, a recent film, or even from a
familiar television commercial. That fact alone
brought the production much it its unusual and
unanticipated positive public response.

Former President of Germany Richard von Weizscker (left) at Wallenstein. Photo: Peter Nunniinger.

24

Paris Theatre, JanuaryApril 2008

Barry Daniels
tragedy of love. The recently named Emperor of
Rome, Titus, loves Brnice, a foreign queen.
Roman law forbids him to marry a foreigner and a
queen. He tries to avoid confronting Brnice by
having his friend Antiochus inform her that she
must leave Rome. Titus does not know that
Antiochus secretly loves Brnice. After much hesitation and a wonderful tirade in act 4, Titus offers
to renounce his position and leave with Brnice.
She, however, realizing that Titus would be diminished by such an act, refuses his offer and prepares
to leave Rome.
Lambert Wilson, a well-known stage and

Classic Plays
Christopher Marlowes Edward II is a
strikingly modern play. It deals openly with homosexuality and paints a bleak portrait of political
maneuvering. Anne-Laure Ligeois has directed an
excellent production of the play for the National
Dramatic Center of Montluon which was presented at the Thtre 71 in the Parisian suburb of
Malakoff.
The set, designed by the director, consisted
of a steeply raked platform that descended to a narrow forestage on which was placed a grey leather
sofa that served as the throne in court scenes.
The stage was backed by black curtains that
opened to reveal sky for exterior scenes.
After the intermission, a part of the stage
right side of the platform swiveled, opening
a gap that served as Edwards prison. The
costumes by Sverine Yvernault were modern: the men wore dark suits and donned
white ruffs for court scenes; the women wore
gowns. For the second part of the evening
the queen, Isabelle, wore a dress and a fur
coat. The general effect of the visual production emphasized the modernity of the text.
Ligeoiss staging was both simple
and clear. Edward flaunted his homosexuality, kissing and caressing Gaveston openly in
court. He heaped benefits on his lover,
enraging the courtiers who have Gaveston
assassinated and force Edward to abdicate.
Mortimer, who has seduced Isabelle, is the
leader of the opposition, and it is he who
orders Edwards death. Mortimer, however,
is condemned by Edwards son in his first act
as king. The struggle for power seems much
like the present except for the easy use of
violence. Mortimer is a sharp politician and
brilliant schemer. Edward is a weak and foolish ruler, but his passion for Gaveston is
touching and very human. Claude Duparfait
brought out the human qualities in his performance of Edward. Olivier Dutilloy was a
strong and virile Mortimer. Ligeois cunningly left Mortimer center stage on the
throne during the staging of Edwards torture and brutal death.
Racines Brnice is a sublime

Marlowes Edward II, directed by Anne-Laure Ligeois.

Photo: National Dramatic Center of Montluon

25

Molires The School for Wives, directed by Jean-Pierre Vincent. Photo: Odon-Thtre de lEurope.

Thtre de lEurope. It featured film star Daniel

Auteuil and was designed by the well-known
painter Jean-Paul Chambas. It proved to be a fairly
lackluster production, albeit a handsome one, with
lovely period costumes by Patrice Cauchetier and an
ingenious set.
The play deals with Arnolphe, an old man
who has raised his ward Agns in a convent so as to
keep her ignorant of the ways of the world. He has
brought innocent Agns to his home to marry her.
She has, however, been courted in secret by a handsome young man, Horace. Horace confides in
Arnolphe, not knowing he intends to marry Agns
himself. A last minute appearance of Agnss father
results in the happy marriage of the young couple.
The role of Arnolphe dominates the play
and requires a virtuoso comic actor. Auteuil tried to
make the character both psychologically realistic
and funny. He succeeded in the first but not in the
second. The comedy was forced and awkward.
Although the rest of the actors were competent, only
Lyn Thibault as Agns succeeded in creating a
comic character. Director Vincent clearly wanted to
present a straightforward and traditional reading of
the play. This he did, but he failed to bring the comedy to life.
Andr Engels staging of Kleists

film actor, directed the play at the Bouffes du Nord

with himself as Titus. It was a wonderfully acted
and beautifully designed production (set and costumes, Chlo Obolensky; lights, Dominique
Brugire). A circular mosaic was placed in the center of the thrust stage. The back wall of the stage
was designed to resemble a Roman palace with
pilasters painted Pompeian red. The costumes were
elegant and rich with Titus in a purple toga. The
lighting varied for each scene and made use of dramatic shadows. A warm glow suffused the scenes in
which Brnice was present.
Wilsons staging was clearly influenced by
the work of Peter Brook, artistic director of the
Bouffes du Nord. Emphasis was on the costumed
actor and the creation of elegant stage pictures.
Wilson was handsome and tender as Titus, torn
between his duty and his passion. Carole Bouquet
was poised and elegant as Brnice. Hurt by Tituss
rejection she remained dignified. Fabrice Michel
was a strong presence as the hapless Antiochus, and
veteran actor Georges Wilson (Lamberts father)
was excellent as Paulin, confidant to Titus.
Throughout Racines verse was beautifully spoken.
One of the most anticipated productions of
the Paris season was Jean-Pierre Vincents staging
of Molires The School for Wives at the Odon-

26

under the domination of his shrewish wife

Anglique. Marcelle, his friend Paillardins wife,
suffers from neglect by her husband. The two decide
to have an affair and make a date to meet at the
Hotel of Free Exchange. Act 2 of the play is set in
the hotel where a deft series of complications prevent the two from consummating their relationship.
Act 3 returns to Pinglets apartment where the two
would-be lovers become embroiled in a complicated scheme to cover up their rendezvous of the previous evening.
Feydeaus craft is admirable and the play
works like a well oiled machine. Franons production was fast-paced and lively, although I thought
Jacques Gabels set rather bland. Clovis Cornillac, a
well-known film actor, played the harassed Pinglet
with great charm. Irina Dalle was svelte and chic as
Marcelle. Anne Benoit was positively fierce as
Madame Pinglet, and lanky ric Berger was suitably absent as Paillardin.

Catherine von Heilbronn at the Ateliers Berthier of

the Odon-Thtre de lEurope was a huge success.
The play, set in the late middle ages, is about a
young woman who falls in love with a Count and
leaves her family to pursue him in the belief he will
marry her despite the difference in class. It is an odd
dreamlike text that includes elements of a fairy tale.
Nicky Rieti provided Engel with an astonishing set composed of three large movable units
representing gothic ruins perched on rocks, one of
which soars high above the stage. These units reconfigure to create the various interiors and exteriors
required by the text. Andr Diots moody lighting
recalled paintings of the German romantic school.
The acting was uniformly excellent. Julie-Marie
Parmentiers Catherine was delicate and determined. Jrme Kircher was a handsome and dashing Count Wetter von Stahl. Anna Mouglalis was
over-the-top as the villainous Baroness von
Thurnek.
The Thtre de la Colline presented a two
month run of Feydeaus The Hotel of Free Exchange
starting on 27 December. Directed by the theatres
artistic director, Alain Franon, the production
brought mirth to the holiday season and provided
the theatre with a hit production.
In the play, Pinglet, an architect, suffers

Modern and Contemporary Plays

Contemporary Swedish author Lars Norn
has a big following in Paris. One of his champions,
Jean-Louis Martinelli, staged a fine production of
Dtails (2002) at the Thtre Nanterre-Amandiers,

Georges Feydeaus The Hotel of Free Exchange, directed by Alain Franon. Photo: Thtre de la Colline.

27

where he is artistic director. The play presents the

intertwining relationships of four characters: Erik,
an editor; Ann, his wife; a doctor and successful
playwright, Stefan; and Emma, an aspiring writer.
The play covers ten years in the lives of these characters. Emma has affairs with both Erik and Stefan
and eventually marries Stefan. Anns relationship
with Erik ends when he is imprisoned for seducing
a minor. The play presents the story in a realistic
manner, accumulating details of the characters
lives which give them depth and interest.
Martinelli staged the play with great skill. I
was surprised that such material could hold my
interest for three hours. It is essentially an actors
play and the cast was excellent. Stphane Freiss portrayed Eriks fragility and convinced us of his
attraction to the youthful Emma. Marianne Basler
was cool and assured as Ann, breaking down only
when she learns of Stefans betrayal. Eric Caruso
was suitably weak willed as Erik. Sophie Rodrigues
gave Emma the instability that made her so attractive to both men.
The final scene is a kind of epilogue in
which Ann and her second son arrive in Tel Aviv
where her second husband works. Martinelli chose
to have this scene read as though it were a scene
from one of Eriks scripts. The effect was to make
us think that whole play was, in fact, one of Eriks.
Bernard-Marie Kolts and Jean-Luc
Lagarce, who both died young of AIDS, are two of
Frances most important playwrights of the last
part of the twentieth century. Kolts juvenilia have
been regularly published since his death in 1988.
Among the most recent to appear is The Day of
Murders in the Story of Hamlet, a version of
Hamlet reduced to four characters: Hamlet,
Ophelia, Gertrude, and Claudius. Written in 1974,
it is a hallucinatory piece of writing which focuses
on the violent emotional relationships among them.
Although Kolts worked from poet Yves
Bonnefoys translation of Shakespeare, the text is
very much his own. Shakespeares words appear as
a strand in a complex and original fabric. If you
know the original well, you are constantly startled
by Koltss choices.
The play has been imaginatively staged at
the Thtre de la Bastille by young director, Thierry
de Peretti. The stage was open to the black back and
side walls of the theatre. A square of Mylar on the
floor downstage left covered a trap which opened
near the plays conclusion, a reference to Ophelias
grave. Florescent tubes leaned against the walls and

blinked erratically in the final scenes. The actors

wore contemporary dress designed by Caroline de
Vivaise: the men in black suits and white shirts,
Ophelia in a mini skirt and black leather jacket, and
Gertrude in a fake leopard skin coat. Yves Godin
provided dramatic and theatrical lighting.
The young cast performed with passion
and intensity. Pascal Tagnati was an erratic, hallucinatory Hamlet. Director Peretti performed Claudius
as a seasoned politician. Lisa Martino was sophisticated and voluptuous as Gertrude. Annabelle
Hettmann was a sexy Ophelia. The closet scene was
performed in Gertrudes large bed; blinding light
directed at the audience was used for the final scene.
The play ended with bodies on the stage floor and
Hamlet against the back wall drinking a second time
from the poisoned goblet. Scene titles were projected on the back wall giving a Brechtian touch to the
production.
One year after the creation of a work by
Kolts at the Comdie-Franaise, Lagarce, whom I
wrote about here in a recent issue [WES 19.2, Spring
2007], has entered into the repertory of this illustrious company with an excellent production of Just
the End of the World, directed by Michel Raskine.
This play deals with the visit of Louis to his family
home in the country, ostensibly to announce his
imminent death. Although he never makes his
announcement, we see Louiss relationships with
his mother, sister, and brother. Resentments surface
and the play climaxes in a heart-rending monologue
by Louiss brother Antoine.
Lagarce uses repetition and extended
monologue. Raskines cast was especially sensitive
to the structure and music of the text. Pierre-Louis
Calixte acted as the somewhat passive and aloof
Louis. Cathrine Ferran was sedate and somewhat
distant as the mother. Julie Sicard was spirited as
Louiss sister Suzanne, although she tended to milk
her lines for laughs. Laurent Stocker brought an
immense amount of feeling to the pivotal role of
Antoine, who grew up in the shadow of Louis.
Director Raskine wisely chose a theatrical
approach in his staging. He began the play on a shallow forestage backed by the old house curtain of the
theatre. A small ramp allowed characters to move
closer to the audience. When the curtain rose the
stage was shallow. There was a pile of old furniture
stage left and a platform stage right with four chairs
in which the actors sat when not performing.
Theatre 2 Gennevilliers started the New
Year with the revival of a trilogy of plays written

28

lighting were precise and eloquent.

John Malpede, director of the Los Angeles
Poverty Department, was invited to recreate his Red
Beard with volunteers from the community at the
Thtre 2 Gennevilliers. The piece is based on
Kurosawas film Barbarossa. The audience is divided into four sections of two rows each facing a TV
with five chairs on each side. Malpede abridged the
film to a running time of two hours. It is played on
the TV while the actors perform the scenes of the
movie. The actors are seated in the chairs at the two
sides of the screen. After half an hour, the actors
rotate, so that the audience sees the forty performers
in groups of ten. Malpede brought four actors from
his company and used thirty-six volunteers from the
community. They worked for a month on the material which deals with the stories of people in a hospital in Japan.
I found it to be an interesting method for
training the volunteers. They worked from the film
and performed simultaneously with it. The film
structured their work, but each actor created a distinct character. Three of the groups performed in
French and one in English. The open space behind
the four rows of actors was occasionally used for
performing, but in general, the actors performed in
the narrow area between each TV and the audience.
I managed to catch one of the last performances of the Thtre du Soleils Ephemera. It is a

and directed by Jol Pommerat. I was able to see

two of the plays and I continue to find Pommerats
work as a director more interesting than his writing.
In the World deals with a family whose
patriarch is preparing to name a successor to head
the family business. Designers Eric Soyer and
Marguerite Bordat created a kind of black box
which had tall narrow window openings in which
white curtains hung. With changes of props this set
served as various rooms in the family mansion.
Soyers lighting was evocative and varied. In early
scenes in the play the floor was miked so the sound
of actors walking was amplified. Movement, gesture, sound, and light were orchestrated with precision.
The Merchants tells the story of two
women friends who work in a factory in a provincial
town. One of them lives with her son in a huge
apartment on the twenty-third floor of a modern
building bought for her by her father. She is, however, barely able to cope with her existence. When
the factory is to be closed permanently after a dangerous explosion, she decides that it will be saved if
she sacrifices her son. The text of the play is narrated by the womans friend while the action is performed silently by eight actors. Eric Soyers bare set
had a back wall that opened to represent the window
of the apartment from which the woman throws her
child. As with In the World, movement, sound, and

Bernard-Marie Koltss The Day of Murders in the Story of Hamlet, directed by Thierry de Peterri. Photo: Thtre de la Bastille.

29

Jean-Luc Lagarces Just the End of the World, directed by Michael Raskine. Photo: Comdie-Franaise.

present and past are enacted. In another scene a

woman asks to enter the house where she grew up.
It turns out to be inhabited by a woman who has suffered a stroke and who had been her high school
teacher. The production was thus a panorama of past
histories from the perspective of the present. The
final effect of the material was intimate and moving.
The staging of Ephemera was wonderfully
theatrical. The company created setting placed the
audience in a kind of operating theatre banked on
two sides of the elongated playing space. Through
the large openings at each end platforms with specific sets were rolled into the space. Often these
units moved across the space or were swiveled
slowly while the scenes were being performed. The
effect was dazzling and imaginative. Jean-Jacques
Lematre provided music which underscored the
drama and unified the material. Each actor in the
large company performed a number of roles and all
were excellent.

sixand-a-half-hour production divided into two

parts which could be seen on alternate nights during
the week or in their entirety on Saturdays and
Sundays. Ariane Mnouchkine is credited with the
idea for the work which was created through
improvisations by the actors using stories from their
lives. The piece has twenty-nine scenes involving
twelve distinct stories. Each involves memories
from the past and occasionally works through flashback. The story that opens the play, Stang Bihan
involves a woman who is preparing to sell her
recently deceased mothers house. A man whose
daughter has just been born sees the For Sale sign
and purchases it. In the second part of the work we
see this woman seeking information in the archives
about her mother and several scenes recounting her
mothers escape from the Nazis during the occupation of France. In another story, Christmas, two
grown daughters recall the separation of their parents on Christmas Eve many years before. Both

30

April in Paris: In Search of the Past

Phyllis Zatlin
During my brief week in Paris at the end of
April, 2008 I elected to seek a diversity of productions, somewhat removed from the most visible
national and boulevard theatres. But as I review the
five plays I saw, it is clear that all of them were in
search of things past: the passionate, tragic life of
Camille Claudel; the reality of the models behind a
famous Picasso painting; the evocation of a
deceased, ultra conservative grandmother; efforts to
take an elderly mothers ashes to fathers long-lost
grave; the end of Stalinism. For the most part, these
are thoughtful plays that nevertheless often make us
laugh.
Camille Claudel (18641943) is in vogue
this year. The Rodin Museum was featuring an enormously successful special exhibition of her sculptures through late July. I have been to the Rodin
Museum numerous times in the past twenty years
and always walked right in. But for those of us who
had not reserved our tickets in advance, the drizzly
wait outside on a Tuesday was forty-five minutes,
followed by an additional hour-long delay inside the
garden, under a protective tent. The lines in the gift
shop were also not short. The exhibit was widely
advertised on buses and in the subway. Le Figaro
published a special magazine supplement on the
famous artist, woman, and nonconformist. One can
readily consider this activity a vindication of a
genius who was reportedly mistreated by her mentor/lover (Auguste Rodin), her brother (Paul
Claudel), and other members of her family, particularly her mother and sister. The last thirty years of
her life were spent in a poorly heated and isolated
insane asylum; her long imprisonment, perhaps not
justified, evokes the image of another tragic heroine, Queen Juana of Castile, commonly called
Juana, la Loca.
The Camille Claudel production I saw at
Cin 13 Thtre in the Montmartre district was
scheduled from 23 April to 24 May and presented in
collaboration with the Rodin Museum exhibit. The
theatre was also hosting a series of lectures and discussions on Claudel. I chose not to see a performance in drag by Charles Gonzals at the Mathurins
that was running at the same time and similarly purported to portray the artists life.
Camille Claudel 18641943, a performance based on letters and writings of Camille and
Paul Claudel, Rodin, and Camilles friends Mathias

Morhardt, Octave Mirbeau, and Henri Asselin, is an

adaptation by Christine Farr. Farr first directed
the performance in 2004, took it to the Festival
dAvignon in 2005, and has staged it various times
since then, including a tour in 2006-07. Except for a
marvelous performance by Ivana Coppola in the
role of Camille, this intellectual, literary production
is relatively static. The four male actors (Pierre
Carrive as Mirbeau, Enrico Digiovanni as Rodin,
Bernard Montini as Asselin, and Pierre Remund as
Paul Claudel) enter, exit, and occasionally sit down,
but other than Rodin in the early scenes, rarely interact with Camille. Their primary function is verbal,
and they give an often poetic quality to the lines
they deliver. The men fall are either Camilles
antagonists or her would-be allies who attempt to
get recognition for her genius and financial support
for her work. Those efforts are doomed to failure.
Cin 13 is a small theatre, well suited to the
intimate tone of this particular script. The audience
is seated in comfortable armchairs while the action
of Camille Claudel is anything but comfortable. In
the course of the intermission-less hour and a half,
Camille deteriorates from a free-spirited, talented
young girl to a presumably mad old woman. During
the early scenes, she repeatedly molds a clay statue,
downstage left. She uses basins of water for her
work and at one point jumps into a tub of water herself. As her passion degenerates into madness, she
smears her face with dust. In aggressive moments,
she knocks off a bedpost, throws blocks of clay or
stone to the floor, and tosses pillows with real violence. Near the end, during her long imprisonment,
she becomes calm. Her letters plead for her freedom. (Articles in the Figaro supplement indicate
that after Rodins death in 1917 her doctor at the
mental home recommended her release or at least a
move to a more comfortable place where her family
would visit her. The devout, conservative Claudel
family refused.)
In addition to Coppolas performance,
which carries the play, noteworthy aspects of the
production include background music to introduce
the various scenes and special effects to evoke candlelight. Christophe Chouet and Jean-Luc
Chanonat, respectively, created the sound and
lighting.
The tone of the Camille Claudel piece is
dominantly serious, unlike Jaime Saloms tragicom-

31

Jamie Saloms Les Demoiselles dAvignon, directed by Jean-Pierre Dravel. Photo: Rive Gauche.

cal unrest outside the brothel and emphasizes the

sad reality of the women within. Indeed Pilar hangs
herself on New Years Eve rather than continue her
hopeless existence into the twentieth century.
Although not to the extreme of the bilingual New
York production at the Thalia Spanish Theatre, the
Rive Gauche staging shifts the tone somewhat in the
direction of a boulevard comedy. Most notable in
this respect is a lively song and dance (music by
Grard Presgurvic) added to the beginning of the
New Years Eve celebration. Madame Hortense
(Catherine Allegret) has closed her business for the
night and invites her family to drink fine champagne at a centennial party. Their happy, male-bashing song brings down the house and does so again
during the curtain calls. (The evening I saw Les
Amazones there was also an added song during curtain calls [See WES 17.3, Fall 2005].)
Les Demoiselles dAvignon closed on 30
April after a run of three months. Why the production was not a runaway hit is open to debate.
Certainly when I attended on Saturday night, the
audience repeatedly called the cast members back
and applauded wildly when they performed the New
Years Eve song as an encore. Their enthusiasm was

edy about the young Pablo Picasso and the women

he portrayed in Les Demoiselles dAvignon.
Avignon in that famous painting refers not to the
French city but rather to a street in the red-light district of Barcelona where Picasso frequented a particular brothel at the turn of the last century. While
Camille in the Farr production is the lone woman
surrounded by men, Pablo in Saloms work is the
lone man surrounded by women.
Salom (b. 1925, Barcelona) is one of
Spains most acclaimed playwrights. A number of
his plays have been translated and performed internationally, including productions in New York and
Paris, but this recent show at the Rive Gauche in the
Montparnasse district is arguably the most visible
and significant staging of his work in either of those
two major theatre centers. Les Demoiselles
dAvignon was adapted for the French stage by
Jacques Collard and Nicolas Laugero-Lasserre. It
was directed by Jean-Pierre Dravel and Olivier
Mace, a team that also collaborated at the Rive
Gauche on Les Amazones by Jean-Marie Chevret
[See WES 17.1, Winter 2005].
First staged in Spain in 2001, Saloms play
has its comic moments but also refers to the politi-

32

in no way marred by the fact that the play ran two

hours without an intermission. This response was
not only the most enthusiastic for the plays I saw
during my trip but among the warmest I can recall
in any Parisian play Ive attended over the years. As
the play closed, plans were underway for a television airing of Saloms text.
A key element of Les Demoiselles
dAvignon is, of course, the Picasso painting and
how it came into being. The young artist (Flicien
Juttner) has no money to pay for services but visits
the brothel frequently; he says he has fallen in love
with Rosita (Serena Reinaldi) and he manages to
cajole Madame Hortense into letting him in despite
his lack of funds. In one scene, he sketches the
young women. In the epilogue, several years after
the brothel closed because of the suicide, the
Madames estranged daughter Sofia has discovered
the painting in a magazine and convenes the other
young women in a caf. The famous painting is projected on a screen. Although not present in the
French adaptation, in Saloms original Spanish version the caf setting and the projected painting also
serve as a prologue that clearly identifies Picasso
before the action begins.
There is no question about the splendid
acting of most of the cast. Ccile Luciani was
impressive as Sofia, who is shielded from serving
clients but works as a seamstress and housekeeper
for the others. Her modest dresses stand out against
the apparel of the prostitutes and Madame
Hortenses love of fine fabrics. (An outstanding feature of the production are the costumes designed by
Valrian H. Critics, though I must note that the
plays appeal did not reside solely on the provocative garments of the working girls.) Laura
Presgurvic gives a fine performance as the embittered Pilar. Her unhappiness contrasts radically with
the habitual laughter of Pepita (Christelle Reboul),
Rositas younger sister who becomes the lover of
Antonia (Ccile Bois). The latters rejection of men
goes well beyond the comic male-bashing song.
Although Serena Reinaldi might have given a more
nuanced portrayal of Rosita (who falls in love in
Picasso, finances his trip to Paris, and then is
betrayed by him) the young women taken collectively give an animated, compelling performance.
Whether Flicien Juttner and Catherine
Allegret were the best choices for the lead roles is
less clear. The production of Les Demoiselles
dAvignon was in the planning stages for years and
some actors who might have taken these roles

reportedly had professional conflicts and had to

decline. I did not find Juttner charismatic enough to
explain why Madame Hortense and Rosita were so
taken by him. Allegret gave shadings to her character but her role was rewritten in a way that made
Madame Hortense harder to understand: in the
French adaptation, but not in the original Spanish,
she takes Picasso to her own bed when he cant pay
for the younger womens services. Saloms
Madame, who is proud of owning a business and
running it with proper decorum, would never have
done that.
Among the highlights of the production is
a comic carnival scene in which Picasso arrives at
the brothel door dressed as a nun. Before his disguise is uncovered, Rosita and Pepita panic because
they have a sister who really is a nun and has no
knowledge of how her siblings earn their living.
Nicolas Sires set design features red velvet on the walls and seats inside the room. To be
sure, the color evokes a brothel, but the room is not
one open to clients. The private space of Madames
family might have another tone entirely. This is
not as jarring a concern as the decision to use the
same basic set for the caf scene. Saloms text calls
for a caf with the projection of windows as well as
a projection of the Picasso painting. In the French
production, the addition of a couple of tables and
some chairs in the red room is not enough to clarify
that the reunion meeting is not back at the old
house; it is therefore difficult to feel the full impact
of Madame Hortenses unexpected arrival. She has
been invited there by Antonia without her daughters knowledge, in order to force a reconciliation.
In some sense Sophie Arthurs play Je vous
salue, Mamie also involves a reconciliation. Arthur,
whose acting career includes stage, movies, and television, co-wrote the script with her cousin Marie
Giral, who is a writer. The inspiration for the play
was when Marie became a grandmother, and wished
to remember her own grandmother who had died
some twenty years earlier. The play is described in
LOfficiel des Spectacles as a comic, touching stroll
through the past. The description is misleading. Far
more accurate is the brief synopsis in the press kit.
It first confirms that religions suppress womens
creativity, sexuality, and freedom of expression and
then states that this one-person performance dissects
the damage caused by the rigid Catholic upbringing
of by the French bourgeoisie in the 1960s. The
authors intention was to find some way to laugh, or
at least smile, at the memories they recount.

33

The fanatical Catholicism of the grandmother, along with the rigid rules of conduct that
she set for her family, particularly the girls, were not
new for me. No one was to speak of body parts
located between the neck and the knees; an ideal
vacation was a trip to the shrine at Lourdes; by age
four children were made to feel guilty for Christs
crucifixion; and as pre-teens girls were allowed to
sit sedately at tea dances but had to hold a coin
between their legs so that the noise of it hitting the
floor would be an alert that one of them had been
tempted to get up and dance. And, of course,
because birth control was taboo, large families were
the norm.
But this fanaticism was familiar to me
because of my long immersion in Spanish literature.
Initially I was surprised that there were also grandmothers like that in liberal France; French friends
have assured me that they were common in the middle-class in the 1960s, but more likely in the
provinces than in Paris. Je vous salue, Mamie does
not describe a unique experience. The warm
response from the audience when I attended a
Saturday matinee no doubt revealed both an appreciation for Arthurs outstanding performance as well
as memories within their own families of similar
experiences.
Directed by Justine Heynemann, the monodrama was first performed at the Festival
dAvignon in 2007. It opened at the Thtre La
Bruyre in the Montmartre district in early April
2008.
The set suggests an attic. Prominent items
include a chair covered by a sheet, a trunk which
contains stuffed animals and dolls, a doll carriage,
an antique rocking horse, and some large stuffed
animals. In her seventy-minute monologue, Arthur
uses the props primarily to justify her moving about
the stage. She uncovers the chair and sits on it,
kneels beside the trunk to pull out some dolls, and
puts the dolls in the carriage. None of this action
evokes particular memories but rather prevents the
play from being too static.
Sophie Arthur, wearing a bright red dress
of which her grandmother would surely not
approve, injects so much life into her performance
that the hour and ten minutes fly by. She does so
through her storytelling skills, her shifts in mood,
and occasional imitations of her grandmothers
speech. At times the script is an attack on rigid
Catholicism. It highlights the death of her mother
when the girl was still quite young but it also has

moments of nostalgia and humor. Absent here are

such stock monodrama devices as phone calls or
dialogues with offstage or imaginary characters.
Arthur does not need such crutches to maintain
momentum and keep the audiences attention.
Two comic highlights were the evocation
of a small childs confusion on how both the Jews
and the Romans were bad and a delightful comment
on the recent elimination of limbo for unbaptized
babies. Arthur juxtaposes her grandmothers possible guilt at having a baby die before baptism and the
change in policy in 2006 that was not retroactively
applied. She impishly conjectures that there just
wasnt space in heaven for all those millions of
babies who had been condemned to limbo over the
centuries. This particular piece about limbo brought
the loudest laughter of the performance.
Arthur does not fail to mention her grandmothers anti-Semitism and racism but she also suggests that her grandmother, had she been born a Jew
or a Muslim, would have been just as devoted to that
other religion as she had been to Catholicism. While
trying to understand grandmothers attitude, the
play clearly points out the results of restricted education for women.
If there was a similar serious underpinning
to Pierre Nottes 2 Petites dames vers le Nord (Two
Little Ladies Heading North), I missed it. Notte is
the current secretary general of the ComdieFranaise. His Moi aussi je suis Catherine Deneuve
was a Molire prizewinner in 2006. This new comedy for two hands opened at the Thtre Ppinire
Opra in mid March and was going strong in late
April (at least on Wednesday, when ticket prices are
reduced). The show runs almost two hours without
intermission, and might be improved with judicious
cutting. I noted that several people near me walked
out in the middle. By contrast, no one wanted to
leave the somewhat longer Les Demoiselles
dAvignon, not even after the play was over.
In the case of Nottes play, this kind of negative audience response is ironic. The opening scene
of his action reveals two sisters being tremendously
bored by a Pinter play on a rare evening when they
decide not to visit their fatally ill mother in the hospital. Of course that is precisely the night their
mother dies.
The wacky senior-citizens decide to bury
their ninety-seven-year-old mothers ashes next to
their fathers graveif they can find it. With picnic
baskets and a tin biscuit box containing the ashes,
they set out on a fantastic journey to a cemetery in

34

provides day and time for the various scenes to orient the spectators. Even so, it is not clear why the
Monday scene at the police station is presented
before some Sunday scenes of wild bus driving.
The single set, designed by Edouard Laug,
allows for ready scene changes executed by the two
actors with minimal props. A large chest, where the
buss steering wheel is stored when not needed, is at
times a bench. In the opening scene, it is turned so
that the sisters face the audience to view and comment on the static Pinter play. In the next scene, an
area downstage right becomes the hospital elevator.
A counter slides in downstage left to suggest the
family boutique. A box later slides in downstage
right as a tomb. Strobe lights establish the karaoke
bar. The steering wheel and the sisters movement
create the effect of a jerky bus ride. When Salviat as
the driver takes a wrong turn and ends up at the
beach, we know this from the sound of seagulls. The
staging, like the singing routines of the sisters, is
agile and entertaining, albeit a bit too long.
Equally farcical and entertaining, at least
in its opening scene, was Jean Bouchauds Un Drle
de cadeau (A Funny Present) at the Darius Milhaud,
located at Porte de Pantin. Bouchaud (b. 1936,
Marseille) is a well-known actor, director, and playwright. I chose this revival of a play first staged in
1985 at the Mathurins, under Bouchauds direction,

the North they vaguely remember near Amiens.

When they cant get a cab at the Amiens train station, they steal a sixty-passenger municipal bus to
hunt for the right graveyard. Their improbable
adventure takes them not only to several cemeteries
but also to a karaoke bar and, as might be anticipated given both the bus theft and the one sisters
dreadful driving skills, a police station.
Patrice Kerbrat in his distinguished career
has directed some fifty plays, primarily of living
playwrights. Catherine Salviat and Christine
Murillo, who portray Annette and Bernadette, are
themselves sisters; both of them have performed
with the Comdie-Franaise and have been winners
of Molire acting awards. Not surprisingly, 2 Petites
dames vers le Nord has delightful comic moments
and much to commend it. Salviat and Murillo energetically dance and sing (music by Notte) and display an enormous range of facial expressions.
Among critical reactions posted outside the theatre
was one suggesting that much of this convincing
sisterly interaction could have come from Salviat
and Murillos own relationship.
Another critic astutely observed that there
could have been less comic business. I would suggest that at least one of the cemetery visits and one
scene in the bus could have been eliminated, thus
avoiding repetitiveness. An offstage male narrator

Pierre Nottes 2 Petites dames vers le Nord. Photo: Comdie-Franaise.

35

precisely because it was one of his works. The play

was filmed in the mid 1990s and aired on France 3.
The current production is not the first by the young
theatre group.
The Darius Milhaud is quite literally a
fringe theatre, located on the Eastern edge of Paris.
The word diversity is posted in the window of a
space that includes two small auditoriums and hosts
a variety of groups as well as offering workshops for
children and adults. The Bouchaud text, scheduled
for 9 p.m. Tuesdays from late March to mid June,
was played for the three-dozen seats of the Petit
Milhaud. It ran simultaneously with another production in the larger theatre and both followed other
plays staged earlier in the evening. Most of the nine
plays running in late April at the Darius Milhaud
were being performed only once or twice a week
each. There is no doubt that this space lives up to its
diversity motto.
The action of Un Drle de cadeau begins
in 1949 shortly before Stalins seventieth birthday,
and ends in 1956 just after his death. The earlier
scenes present a spoof of a Communist cell. Except
for the regional inspectora stereotypically unsmiling woman with severe hair style and glassesthe
cell members do not take their politics very seriously. A militant song is just as likely to provoke sexual desire as revolutionary goals, particularly when
the building concierge is around without her husband. The room is cold and one cell member is
tempted to toss political pamphlets in the woodburning stove. Another hides a girly magazine
which he plants on Marcel, a fellow cell member,
when he thinks he will be caught with the forbidden
material. Although all of the roles in these 1949
scenes are caricatures, the most blatantly farcical is
the stuttering Marcel.
A large cupboard located in an upstage corner functions, as it might in boulevard comedy, as a
place where a lover or spy may be hiding. One of
the cell members is so near-sighted that she cannot
see a man hiding in the closet. Another insists on
baking cakes that nobody wants to eat and on knitting an oversized, red birthday sweater for Stalin.
The others vigorously reject this and the need to
find an appropriate gift for their leader becomes
their main concern.

These early scenes proceed at the rapid

pace of farce, are interspersed with songs, and are
filled with time-honored comic devices. The tone is
light-hearted. The spectators, like the cell members,
have no reason to question the wisdom of sending
Marcel to Russia to deliver their gift in person: an
engraved figurine provided by a newcomer, who
says he got it for free from a fellow sympathizer.
They cant read Russian, so they dont realize that
the figurine, which once belonged to Lenin, also has
the names of Stalins enemies on it.
In the 1956 scene, things have changed.
Stalins picture has been taken down and replaced
by that of a cute dog. The near-sighted Communist
is visibly pregnant and is now married to one of the
cell members. The introduction of a record player
denotes a willingness to enjoy a variety of music.
They are all puzzled that Marcel never returned
from Russia, but only the unsmiling supervisor
seems still dedicated to Communist ideals. Marcel
reappears, no longer stuttering and with gray hair
and a sad demeanor. He tells them he was imprisoned for years in a gulag because of their gift to
Stalin. He says that he needed to believe in a paradise but the paradise turned out not to be true.
That, in essence, is the message of Bouchauds
play: disillusionment with Stalinism. Of the five
plays I saw in Paris, Bouchauds makes the greatest use of surface humor and yet conveys the most
serious message.
Under the excellent direction of Nathalie
Laul, the eight-member cast of young actors delivers an impeccable, lively performance. The single
set, which undoubtedly has to be put up and struck
quickly, worked well. Low piles of newspapers,
with an open space for an entrance, establish the
division between the cell location and the hallway.
The upstage cupboard, a table, chairs, and a little
stove are the main props. A blackboard on the right
wall provides a place to announce subscriptions for
Stalins gift and then the 1956 date to mark the passage of time. For the audience, the ninety intermission-less minutes pass quickly. Bouchauds satire,
which may have been considered controversial by
some before the fall of the Berlin Wall, is now merely an entertaining spoof of Communist activity during the Cold War.

36

Barcelona: Revisiting the Classics

Maria M. Delgado
Ay Carmela! is back (although the visibility the play has enjoyed since its premiere twenty
years ago makes you question if it ever went away).
The first production featured the Lecoq- and
Grotowski-trained actor Jos Luis Gmez in the
role of the hapless vaudeville entertainer Paulino,
while the beguiling Veronica Forqu, then one of
Pedro Almodvars favorite performers, played the
feisty Carmela. Gmez also directed the production
with a close attention to creating a stage world that
was able to conjure the slightly tawdry aura of the
music hall. Considering it two decades on I remember the impeccable timing of the vaudeville numbers, the sexual chemistry between the two performers, and the bittersweet homage to a world of
itinerant theatre that appeared all so forgotten in the
anythings possible heady days of Spains socialist government.
The play concerns two music hall performers entertaining Republican troops during the
Spanish Civil War. A foggy night leads to a mistaken crossing of enemy lines and suddenly both are
captured and held with a range of prisoners including a group of Polish International Brigade soldiers.
Temporary freedom comes at the hands of an Italian
officer who sees them as a theatrical pageant for
both the Nationalist forces and the political prisoners who will be executed the following day. While
Paulino encourages Carmela to go along with the
routine that the Italian Ripamonte has put together,
Carmela finds herself unable to perform the role of
the besieged Republic in the arch propagandist
sketch cobbled together by Ripamonte and her
onstage protest leads directly to her murder at the
hands of a Nationalist officer watching the performance.
While Jos Sanchis Sinisterra relies on an
array of characters in crafting the story of Ay
Carmela!, most are conjured solely through what
Carmela and Paulino say about them. The tale is
effectively recounted in flashback as Carmelas
ghost comes back to haunt the grief-stricken
Paulino. The reminiscences in the bleak postCivil
War present are juxtaposed with scenes showing the
couple preparing and then and playing out the
vaudeville show that will lead to Carmelas murder.
In a nation haunted by the ghosts of the Civil War,
the resonances of Carmelas appearances struck a
pertinent chord and the play became one of demo-

cratic Spains most conspicuous theatrical successes. Carmela became an icon: an embodiment of the
Spanish spirit that refuses to compromise and of the
need to remain firm and committed in the face of
totalitarianism. In addition, she functioned as a
reminder of the need to deal with an unresolved past
and learn to live with the many specters that remain
in the nations consciousness. Ay Carmela! paid
homage to the victims of the Civil War without
resorting to facile generalizations and easy stereotyping.
Carlos Sauras 1989 film opted for Carmen
Maura in the role of Carmela and popular TV comic
Andrs Pajares as the opportunistic Paulino. Now
Miguel Narros has opted for a production that does
little service to the play, conceptualizing it as an outdated relic. Forqu reprises the role of Carmela but
shes not quite as lithe or as fresh-faced as the
Carmela that burst onto the stage twenty years ago.
She relies on the gestures and movements that
underpinned her performance then but these are
positioned within a lazy production that substitutes
precision for generalizations. Santiago Ramos never
provides a credible Paulino. From the moment he
steps onstage with exaggerated cough and feigned
drunkenness, the intimacy that the play is capable of
conjuring is jettisoned. The result is a stagy production filled with pertinent asides to the audience,
heavy-handed routines, and the kind of production
values that make a mockery of the troupes less than
affluent status.
Narros goes for high production values
with Carmela sporting a range of dresses that hardly look like the makeshift outfits she makes reference to. The pacing seems forced and never really
allows the play to build up momentum. While there
are some amusing moments in the vaudeville routines, the staging never really moulds the varied
vignettes into a cohesive whole. The result is a
patchy, inelegant affair that reeks of opportunism.
At a time when Spains Law of Historical Memory,
introduced by Prime Minister Jos Luis Rodrguez
Zapatero late last year, argues for the need to come
to terms with the past, the opportunity to show how
one of the Spanish stages most resonant authors
offered a model for such a process has effectively
been replaced by cheap thrills and clumsy theatrics.
There have been a number of dramatists to
emerge in the footsteps of Sanchis Sinisterra both in

37

Catalonia (Llusa Cunill, Sergi Belbel, Pau Mir,

and Jordi Galceran) and beyond (Juan Mayorga
especially). Over the past couple of years a new face
has joined the crowd: Carol Lpez. What distinguishes Lpez is her complete faith in comedy as a
preferred idiom and a marked inflection towards the
demands (but never the depths) of commercial theatre. Lpez spins tales that arent afraid to probe
lifes big issues and tells compassionate stories that
avoid easy laughs and banal generalizations.
Germanes (Sisters) is a case in point. The
Villarroels artistic director, Argentine Javier
Daulte, has given the play an extended run and a
month after opening it was playing to packed,
appreciative, and very diverse audiences.
The play is framed by death. It opens with
the demise of a father that brings together his widow
and three daughters at the family home. As the audience enters the theatre his daughters and widow create a tableaux of the mourning family receiving
those who wander by to pay their respects. This prologue is followed by projected credits announcing
the cast appearing before us. The cinematic device
is not accidental, for it feeds into a range of filmic
appropriationsincluding a poster that functions as
a direct homage to Woody Allens Hannah and Her
Sisters (1986), dialogue that provides a curious mix
of Eric Rohmer and Todd Solondz, situations that
juggle something of the wacky premises of
Almodvar, and a pop soundtrack that marks the
pulse of the action.
The play is also shaped by Chekhovs
Three Sistersas the title and the plays opening

line make clear. The sisters are each given a strong

personality. The eldest Ins (an acerbic Mara
Lanau) is an elegant control freak defined by her
designer frocks and grander than thou attitude.
What the sisters dont know is that her marriage fell
apart when her wealthy husband sought solace in
the arms of a younger woman. Irene (Montse
Germn) is the middle sister, a single mother bringing up a teenage son, Igor (Marcel Borrs), and in a
new relationship with the kindly Alex (Paul
Berrondo). The irresponsible younger sister Ivonne
likes to play hard (in every sense of the word) and
avoids responsibility at all costs. The sisters are
watched over by their glamorous martini-guzzling
mother Isabel (Amparo Fernndez), a merry widow,
determined not to grow old gracefully.
The play moves from the immediate aftermath of the fathers death to the situation a year on;
the audience witnesses how the sisters and their
mother have coped with the new family dynamics.
Lpez creates a series of extremely funny situationsfrom the sisters forgetting the funeral speech
on the kitchen table to Inss pained conversations
with her estranged husband. There are also glorious
excessesas with Inss resort to making gazpacho
as she mourns the demise of her marriage, a device
that evidently harkens back to the use of this
Spanish dish in Almodvars Women on the Verge of
a Nervous Breakdown (1989). The characters step
out of the narrative at selected moments (as with the
high-energy rendition of Cyndi Laupers Girls Just
Wanna Have Fun or Isabels diva-esque Non, je
ne regrette rien as act 1 comes to a close), permit-

Carol Lpezs Germanes. Photo: Villarroel Theatre.

38

ting moments of reflection, contemplation, and critical distance all realized without the need for glib
pontificating.
Lpez is not afraid to play with taboos
there are some very funny scenes involving Igors
loss of virginity and Isabels relationship with her
plastic surgeon. The play doesnt shy from looking
at desire in its multiple forms. While indicative of a
generation of Spanish women who saw themselves
as wives and mothers first, the play shows that widowhood in a democratic forward-looking country
and a supportive family structure creates possibilities and liberations.
Bibiana Puigdefabregass set is a delicious
rustic kitchen with enough cupboards and doors to
allow for the many comings and goings that propel
the plot. Lpezs production spares the play of
unnecessary distractions and uses an acting style not
afraid to juggle theatricality with naturalism. The
play may function within the paradigms of a classic
structureprologue, two acts, and an epiloguebut
within these rules the flashbacks, pauses, and reflections allow for a refreshing and unpredictable malleability. While alluding to a range of theatrical
texts, Germanes never appears a mere echo of them.
Lpez is not afraid to acknowledge her sources,
molding them into a theatrical work that engages
both the head and the heart. Her cast is nothing short
of excellent. Mara Lanaus Ins moves from poised
professionalism to disheveled wreck without ever
resorting to parody; Montse Germn gives Irene a
luminosity that never appears one-dimensional or
facile; Aina Clotet imbues Ivonne with both exasperating irresponsibility and an infectious joie de
vivre. Amparo Fernndez as the newly widowed
mother of the clan brings something of the icy elegance of Catherine Deneuvre tempered by the pragmatism of Frances McDormand. Marcel Borrs balances sullenness and curiosity as the teenage Igor
and Paul Berrondo gives an understated performance as the family outsider trying to provide support
without ever appearing intrusive. The play moves
effortlessly from Catalan to Castilian in ways that
speak to the fabric of Catalan society. Germanes
deserved its extended run at the Villarroel. It also
deserves to be seen outside Catalonia and Spain.
At the Romea theatre another Catalan
dramatist reshaped a classic. Pau Mir teamed up
with Calixto Bieito to re-envision Aeschyluss The
Persians, resituating it in Herat, Afghanistan, where
Spanish troops have been deployed to maintain the
peace. The action is reconceived as a requiem of

sorts, played out by a rock band (both actors and

chorus/commentators) who depict the horrors of the
war in which they are trapped. Xerxes is here a
female soldier whose death is feared and at once
foretold by her father Dario (Roberto Quintana).
Bieito sees this adaptation as a requiem to a dead
Spanish soldier, any one of the casualties lost over
the past five years. The recontexualization, however, isnt as well thought through as in Bieitos other
reworkings: the massive Persian army defeated by
the Greeks is here conceived as the Spanish defeated in Afghanistan and, while the arrogance that
marked the Persians may well be attributed to the
Spanish, the parallels dont appear terribly solid.
The production lacks the sophisticated critical framework of Bieitos Peer Gynt or Don
Giovanni. Here Darius is a live but ghostly figure
driven mad by the absence of a daughter he knows
will not return. He opens the play wandering
through the auditorium like a homeless vagrant.
There is no Atossa and here the chorus of Persian
elders is the army band that comments on Xerxes
predicament in Afghanistan. The Spanish flag flies
prominently across the stage leaving no one in
doubt about the targets of the diatribe. The production is high on atmosphericswith intertitles flashing on a strip across the stage, smoke, fireworks,
and the live band presenting a pulsating soundtrack
to the action. The music is in itself a type of choral
accompaniment with Edwin Starrs War making a
conspicuous appearance. Bieito doesnt shy from
showing the violence of armed conflict and Gurutze
Beitia especially gives a moving performance as the
vulnerable soldier. Bieito and Mir are relentless in
their antiwar sentiments. War remains for both a
legal mode of justifying rape and pillage. The dolls
scattered around the stage are a potent image of the
carcasses of children: wars most innocent victims.
Nevertheless the gusto and energy of the
production certain appealed to the school audience
at the Romea when I saw the piece. They screamed,
shouted, commented, and cried. Nothing is left to
the imagination in the staging but frankly this audience didnt seem to mind at all.
At the Gran Teatre del Liceu Joan
Matabosch continues his policy of collaborating
with Catalonias theatrical mavericks. La Fura dels
Bauss previous venture with the Liceu was a new
take on Don Quixote, D.Q. Don Quijote en
Barcelona realized with composer Jos Luis Turina.
This new venture, a co-production with the Opra
National de Paris, presents a double bill of Janeks

39

Aeschyluss The Persians, directed by Pau Mir. Photo: Romea Theatre.

Diary of One Who Disappeared and Bartks

Bluebeards Castle, both directed by company
members Alex Oll and Carles Padrissa. The former
begins in striking fashion with intertitles rising up
from the ground in a vertical line. The dismembered
Beckettian head of Lanik emerges from the ground.
Michael Knig gives us a Lanik that never becomes
more than a bobbing torso eerily lit on the black
empty stage. If this is a Lanik that seems very distant from established characterizations, so La Furas
vision of Zefka moves away from the habitual
gypsy temptress. This is more a hooker than a folkloric wayward maidenall red hotpants, high
boots, and Louise Brookss bob. Marisa Martinss
Zefka is a feline figure, hovering around Lanik as if
scratching his face with her talon nails. The parallels
with John the Baptist in Salom appeared evident
from the productions opening moments. The
almost naked bodies that roll in from the sides in the
latter part of the staging are both the figments of
Laniks imagination and an embodiment of temptation in its most forceful and antagonistic forms.
From a distance they appear a mass of writhing
worms: a statement on death, putrefaction, and the
all-too-transitory pleasures of the flesh.
It is temptation that also appears the governing thematic in Bluebeards Castle. The castle is
here a mirage of reflections and projections of the
Liceu itself, the doors mere mirages of light. Willard
Whites imposing Bluebeard proves an alluring figure; his larger-than-life shadow hovering over the
stage like a ghostly apparition. Katarina Dalaymans

Judith appears as a mass of configurations, each perhaps a manifestation of past loves, past wives.
Whites Bluebeard gives nothing away, a stoic presence whose secrets remain the ultimate enigma.
There is something in La Furas staging that restores
the piece to its expressionistic origins. Nothing distracts from the tasks Judith has set for herself. The
hands that emerge from the bed to caress her, like
the worm-looking bodies of Diary of One Who
Disappeared, suggest forces from beyond the grave
that drive the characters actions. Finally trapped in
the inner recesses of the castle, the wives come out
to claim the newest addition to the tribe but Judith
runs towards the giant projection of Bluebeard and
runs into it as the rain beats down relentlessly. Love
and death united in the operas final moments.
Considering that La Fura made their name
with furious spectacles that blended the pace of a
rock concert with acrobatics and pyrotechnics, there
is something contemplative and measured in their
approach to this double bill. Here time is stretched
out in leisurely configurations that play with our
concepts of the real and the imagined. Both pieces
take place in a twilight zone that hovers between
multiple textual spaces. The stage space is designed
by Jaume Plensa, the companys regular collaborator. Plensa provides an open, expansive arena that
functions as the site of both dreams and nightmares.
La Fura have never been afraid to play with the
audiences imagination. Here they indicate that even
with canonical operas, playfulness and risk always
have a role to play.

40

The Past is Present: Mayorga and Morote on the Madrid Stage

Phyllis Zatlin
Two outstanding productions among contemporary plays on the Madrid stage in early March
2008 were Herbert Morotes El gua del Hermitage
(The Hermitage Guide) at the Bellas Artes and Juan
Mayorgas La tortuga de Darwin (Darwins
Tortoise) at the Abada. Both performed to full
houses when I attended. Morotes ekphrastic text
takes place one cold winter during the siege of
Leningrad in World War II; after the treasures of the
Hermitage have been moved to protect them from
the German invaders, the title character brings
paintings to life through words. Mayorgas title
character is a tortoise who passes as an old woman.
On the eve of her 200th birthday, she recalls events
and people that she has witnessed over those years
from her ground-level vantage point. Morote
emphasizes the best of human nature; Mayorgas
tone is far more satirical.
Morote was born in 1935 in Per.
Following a business career, at age fifty-five he took
retirement in order to study history and become a
writer. Although he now lives in Madrid, The
Hermitage Guide had its world premiere in Lima in
November 2004. The Spanish production opened in
October 2007. The play has been translated to
English and Danish and soon will be performed in
Russian.
The cast of three consists of the elderly, ill
museum guide Pavel Filipovich (Federico Luppi),
the museum guard Igor (Manu Callau), and Pavels
wife Sonia (Ana Labordeta). The two men, who initially seem quite different in character and often
bicker in comic fashion, are united by an enduring
friendship. Sonia, who is younger than her husband,
is part of the citys committee of defense and does
not live at the Hermitage; when she can, she makes
her way across the dangerous city to bring them
supplies. There is no doubt about the deep love
Pavel and Sonia feel for each other. Although at the
outset it appears that Pavel is an idealist and the
other two are firmly planted in reality, even skepticism in the case of Igor, but by plays end it is clear
that all are dreamers who overcome their tragic circumstances through love, friendship, illusion, and
their commitment to great art.
In his program note, Argentinean-born
director Jorge Eines affirms that a museum guide, a
museum guard, and an art restorer (Sonias apparent
pre-war position) have no antecedents in contempo-

rary theatre; however, there are twentieth-century

Spanish plays that not only foreground famous
paintings but also link art and war. Examples
include Rafael Alberts Noche de guerra en el
museo del Prado (Night of War in the Prado
Museum, written in exile and published in Buenos
Aires in 1956) and Antonio Buero-Vallejos last
drama, Misin al pueblo desierto (1999; Mission to
an Abandoned Town).
Buero-Vallejo (19162000) focused on
artists in works such as Sleep of Reason, about
Goya, and Las Meninas, about Velzquez (both
translated by Marion Peter Holt). In Mission to an
Abandoned Town he places the action in the 1930s
and refers, through the mechanism of a fictional lost
painting by El Greco, to real efforts to preserve and
protect national art treasures during the Spanish
Civil War. The need to save art, specifically during
World War II, is also highlighted in the well-known
1964 war movie, The Train (directed by John
Frankenheimer). Starring Burt Lancaster and Paul
Scofield, the film is based on a factual book by a
French art historian on how the Germans looted the
Jeu de Paume and other art museums and private
collections and how the French Resistance attempted to fight back. Thus, while Morotes The
Hermitage Guide is, as Eines suggests, a highly
original work, it nevertheless speaks intertextually
to other fictional works as well as to historical
events.
In essence the cast consists of three major
characters and all three actors performed brilliantly.
Luppi as the guide might be considered the lead
actor in this production, but Manuel Callau as the
guard both opens and closes the action. Labordeta is
on stage less but nevertheless also has a key role. In
a time of extreme violence and strife, it is the touching relationship among the three that underscores
enduring human values as well as the transcendence
of art. Although the guard alerts Sonia that her husband has gone crazy, that Pavel describes paintings
that are no longer there to museum visitors who do
not exist, he also speaks through a window to his
son, who he should know has died out in the trenches. It is also the atheist guard who has risked his life
to sequester a medieval icon of an angel with golden curls in the hope that the painting can bring about
miracles. Sonia humors Igor in his desire to believe
that his son is still alive; Pavel warns Igor that he

41

Herbert Morotes El gua del Hermitage, directed by Jorge Eines. Photo: Bellas Artes Theatre.

will be executed if authorities discover he has kept

a painting behind but clearly would never denounce
his colleague.
For several months, in offstage action,
Sonia arranges to have real groups of Leningrad citizens visit the museum for Pavels tours: illusion is
an escape for them from the harsh reality of a city
under siege. When the old man dies, Igor assures the
bereaved widow that he knows the tour material
well and will carry on in Pavels place.
The single set, designed by Jos Luis
Raymond, reveals a bleak room with blanket-covered cots where the men sleep. A samovar located
downstage right provides hot tea and some warmth.
An old trunk downstage left provides a place for
Igor to stand and peer out an invisible window.
Straight-back chairs with red velvet cushions, located on opposite sides of the stage, at times become
seats in museum halls for sitting and viewing a particular painting. Near the plays end, a series of projections visualizes the several paintings that Pavel
has so vividly described that the audience recognizes them easily. The play runs ninety minutes
without intermission; blackouts indicate the passage
of time.
The costume design by Ikerne Gimnez
enhances the sense of cold and desolation. Sonia,
huddled in an overcoat, enters shivering but gradually is able to remove her outer garment. The two
men sometimes put their blankets over their shoulders as protection from the chilly room with its bare

stone walls. Emphasis is placed on cold hands.

Sonia appears not to have gloves at all. Igor wears
ragged, fingerless gloves. When she is departing,
after Pavels death, Sonia turns back to Igor to give
him her husbands intact, warm gloves as a remembrance of his friend.
A Latin American presence is included in
this production of The Hermitage GuideFederico
Luppi, a famous Argentinean actor who now resides
in Spain. He devoted some ten years to making
movies before returning to the stage in the Morote
play. In an interview for Teatros, a free magazine
that is distributed in Madrids theatres, Luppi stated
that he was delighted by the text: a fable that affirms
the need to keep dreams alive and that does so without resorting to immoderate sex, double meanings
or low blows.
Juan Mayorga (b. 1965), winner of Spains
National Theatre Prize in 2007, is undoubtedly one
of the countrys outstanding younger playwrights
[see WES 14.1, Winter 2000; 17.3, Fall 2005; 19.2,
Spring 2007]. Between his original stage plays and
his creative adaptations, virtually no season passes
without at least one of his works being performed
on the Madrid stage. The 200405 season witnessed
three plays: Himmelweg (Heavens Way), ltimas
palabras de Copito de Nieve (Little Snow Flakes
Last Words) and Hamelin. Likewise in 200708,
Darwins Tortoise was not his only play of note.
This season he also received the Max Prize for his
El chico de la ltima fila (The Boy in the Back Row),

42

One could say that in her wide-ranging dual role of

turtle and old lady, she steals the show, but all four
actors deliver outstanding performances. Dez, who
has worked with some of Spains most celebrated
stage directors, also is known for his performances
in movies and television. Hernndez likewise has a
diversified background but is primarily a stage actor
who has collaborated in the past on a number of productions with Caballero. Talavera performs his mad
scientist with relish, as we would expect from roles
he has played in the past in collaboration with Elena
Cnovas or Caballero [see WES 15.2, Spring 2003;
17.3, Fall 2005; 18.2, Spring 2006].
Darwin apparently did take a giant tortoise
back to England from the Galpagos Islands. Given
the extreme longevity of the reptile, Mayorga imagines that Harriet escapes from Darwins garden and,
one way or another, travels throughout Europe to
become witness to the words and deeds of the most
famous people of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. She has outlived eleven popes and thirty-five
American presidents and has survived two world
wars, the Russian Revolution, and Perestroika.
Caballero states that the principal theme of
Mayorgas fable is the devastating history of the
twentieth century. The play is filled with humor but
also makes serious points. The tortoise first stands

and his La paz perpetua (Everlasting Peace), directed by Jos Luis Gmez, was to open in April at the
National Drama Center.
Mayorgas satirical commentary at times is
presented through animal characters. The title character in Little Snow Flakes Last Words is a white
gorilla. Characters in Everlasting Peace, which was
on tour during my stay in Madrid in March, are a
Rottweiler, a Doberman and a German Shepherd
who are competing to wear the white collar of the
best anti-terrorist dog. The protagonist of Darwins
Tortoise thus is not alone in the playwrights
menagerie.
The director of Darwins Tortoise is
Ernesto Caballero, a playwright himself who has
been instrumental in bringing to the Spanish stage
works of younger authors as well as innovative
adaptations such as the 2006 production of Ramn
de la Cruzs Sainetes for the National Company for
Classic Theatre [see WES 15.2, Spring 2003; 18.3,
Fall 2006].
Darwins Tortoise has a cast of four: the
tortoise (Carmen Machi), who calls herself Harriet
and refers to Darwin as Charley; a professor of history (Vicente Dez); his wife Betti (Susana
Hernndez); and a doctor (Juan Carlos Talavera).
Machi is a well-known television and stage actor.

Juan Mayorgas La tortuga de Darwin, directed by Ernesto Caballero. Photo: Abiada Theatre.

43

on her hind legs to run away from the bombing of

Guernica. She learns to speak when, in her desire to
save a Jewish child from the Germans, she shouts
No! By putting a dress over her shell, she can
become a woman and use the shell to hide a little
boy. When being a human is dangerous, she can
tuck the dress there and once again become a reptile.
Harriet proposes to share her revisionist
and often comic view of history with the professor,
then finds herself being shared by the professor and
the doctor who blackmails the historian into the
arrangement because he wishes to conduct experiments on the tortoise-woman. When it becomes
clear that she is not only being victimized by both
men and the historians wife but that they will kill
her once she is no longer useful to them, Harriet
implements Darwins concept of the survival of the
fittest. She plans her own 200th birthday party. She
bakes a cake laced with all of Bettis pills, decorates
it with a single candle, and, after they sing Happy
Birthday to her, serves it to them. Shealong with
the audiencegleefully watches the three humans
writhe as they die from poisoning.
In one of her short, metatheatrical plays,
Paloma Pedrero has a character affirm that what
actors most enjoy doing is dying. This scene from
Darwins Tortoise confirms the statement. The historian, his wife, and the doctor surely had it coming, and the actors have the time of their lives as
they die agonizingly comic deaths. The expression
on Talaveras face is itself worth the price of
admission.
Jos Luis Raymonds set design, aided by
Paco Arizas lighting, facilitates movement between
the history professors study and the doctors office.

The former is marked by a display of tropical plants

upstage and the professors desk downstage right.
Betti, who is not allowed in her husbands study but
does not hesitate to eavesdrop, generally appears at
a doorway downstage left. A strip of white light in
conjunction with the doctors white coat, the disappearance of the plants and the shifting location of
the desk readily indicate the transition from the
study to the office. When Harriet recounts battles
and violence, her narrative is highlighted by red
lighting. Changes in time and space are also noted
by blackouts and a variety of music.
Special mention should be made both of
Machis remarkable portrayal of Harriet and of
Ikerne Gimnezs costume design. The tortoises
dress, sweater, and hat are a drab brown, in contrast
with the brighter colors worn by Betti. Hernndez,
who is taller than Machi, stands straight and walks
quickly, also in contrast to the tortoise-womans
stooped shoulders and halting steps. A comic highlight is a scene in which the tortoise is on her back,
kicking her legs in the air. The historian becomes
convinced that the old ladys story is true when he
sees her shell. The audience never does but is perfectly willing to suspend disbelief and imagine it.
Raymond, who did the set for both plays
discussed here, is on the faculty at the Royal School
of Dramatic Arts (RESAD) in Madrid. Mayorga and
Caballero also teach there, and Ikerne Gimnez is a
RESAD graduate.
My time in Madrid this March was very
limited, but I consider myself fortunate to have been
able to attend these two splendid productions:
Morotes The Hermitage Guide and Mayorgas
Darwins Tortoise.

44

Index to Western European Stages, Volume 19

Solar Anus ..................................................19:1,10
Arnega, Merc................................................19:1,90
Arquillu, Pere....................................19:1,85;19:3,53
Artus, Dan ..........................................................19:2,5
Aubert, Marion
The Histrions (Detail) .............................19:2,16-7
Aughterlony, Simone .......................................19:3,10
Austria, theatre in .........................................19:3,21-2
Avignon Festival.........................................19:3,17-24
Avilez, Carlos ...............................................19:3,73-8
Axelrod, John...................................................19:1,84
B, Franko .........................................................19:1,13
BabyGang, Milan.............................................19:3,71
Babajanyan, Karine..........................................19:3,15
Bachler, Klaus..................................................19:3,27
Bagby, Benjamin
Beowulf .......................................................19:3,60
Baku, Shango ...................................................19:3,83
Balibar, Jeanne ...................................................19:2,8
Ballet Preljpcaj
Centaurs/Annunciation...............................19:3,46
Barcelona, theatre in ..................19:2,47-50;19:3,53-6
Barker, Megan
Pit ...............................................................19:3,60
Barrena, Begoa...............................................19:3,55
Barth, Michaela................................................19:3,48
Barrett, Bob......................................................19:1,26
Bartusch, Ulrike ...............................................19:3,33
Bataille, Georges ..........................................19:1,9-10
Bauchau, Valrie ..............................................19:2,11
Baudriller, Vincent ...........................................19:3,17
Bauer, Annedore...............................................19:2,23
Bauer, Mathieu
Tendre jeudi ................................................19:3,17
Bauersima, Igor
Norway.today ..........................................19:3,45-6
Baughan, Jason ................................................19:1,26
Bausch, Pina
Caf Mller.................................................19:1,86
Baux, Pierre .....................................................19:2,27
Bavard, Sbastien.............................................19:3,64
Bayen, Bruno
The Eclipse of August II .............................19:2,14
Beale, Simon Russell .......................................19:3,60
Bean, Richard .............................................19:1,37-48
The God Botherers ................................19:1,41,44
Harvest .........................................................19:1,7
Toast.......................................................19:1,38,42
Up on Roof ...................................................19:1,8
Under the Whaleback..............................19:1,46-8
Beaunesne, Yves ..............................................19:3,64

Abili, Obi .........................................................19:3,82

Achard, Olivier ................................................19:2,26
Acker, Claudia .................................................19:3,12
Acosta, Toni .....................................................19:2,34
Adams, Lee
The Language of Flowers ......................19:1,9-10
The Monster in the Night of the Labyrinth .19:1,9
Adamsdale, Will
The Human Computer ................................19:3,60
Aeschylus
The Oresteia..................................19:2,55;19:3,34
The Persians ...............................................19:3,55
Agapito, Vanessa..............................................19:3,74
Agutter, Jenny ..................................................19:2,29
Aime, Chantal ...........................................19:2,49-50
Albee, Edward
The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?.........19:1,90;19:2,37
The Lady from Dubuque .........................19:2,31-2
Whos Afraid of Virginia Wolff?.19:1,87-8;19:3,33
Albert, Xavier ............................................19:2,49-50
Albiol, Francesc ...............................................19:2,34
Aldn, Edouardo
Espinete no existe .......................................19:2,33
Aldridge, Amanda ............................................19:3,84
Aldridge, Ira .................................................19:3,83-4
Alfons, Gerd.....................................................19:3,16
Allam, Roger......................................................19:1,7
Altmann, Olaf ..................................................19:2,55
Alvaro, Anne ......................................................19:2,6
Alvarez, Fernando............................................19:3,74
Amandiers, Thtre des, Paris .........................19:2,19
Anderson, Davey
Snuff............................................................19:1,23
Anderson, Laurie .............................................19:3,56
Andoura, Sharif................................................19:2,11
Andrau, Frdric ..............................................19:2,19
Andr, Chloe ....................................................19:3,62
Andjar, Alejandro...........................................19:2,38
Angelet, Marta .................................................19:1,90
Anthony, Susan ................................................19:2,48
Arbora, Gilles ...............................................19:2,11-2
Archambault, Hortense ....................................19:3,17
Arestegu, Alejandro...................................19:2,39-40
Armand, Merete ...............................................19:1,52
Armin, Jaime de ...........................................19:1,90
Arquillu, Pere ................................19:1,85-6;19:2,50
Artero, Juanjo...................................................19:1,91
Ashford, Rob....................................................19:1,83
Aske, Per Egil ..................................................19:1,52
Athne, Thtre de l, Paris ........................19:2,11-2
Athey, Ron

45

Blomeier, Anna ................................................19:3,31

Boadella, Albert ...............................................19:2,50
Bobigny, Paris.............................................19:2,19-21
Bodner, Marc ...................................................19:2,14
Bwe, Jule........................................................19:2,54
Bohm, Uwe ......................................................19:3,40
Boisel, Christian.................................................19:2,6
Boizard, Julien .................................................19:2,14
Bolao, Roberto
2666 ............................................................19:3,53
Bolle-Reddat, Jean .............................................19:2,8
Bond, Edward
Born.........................................................19:2,17-8
Chair...........................................................19:2,16
Restoration .................................................19:1,15
Saved.............................................................19:1,6
Bonet, Maria del Mar.......................................19:3,56
Bonn, theatre in ............................................19:1,55-8
Bonvoisin, Brangre.......................................19:2,14
Bordat, Marguerite...........................................19:2,23
Bosc, Thierry ................................................19:2,11-2
Bosco, Juan ......................................................19:2,34
Bosse, Jan....................................................19:3,27,45
Bouman, Mark .................................................19:3,81
Bourdet, Edouard
Difficult Times ...........................................19:2,11
Boutelou, Pablo................................................19:1,92
Bozzonet, Marcel..........................................19:2,26-7
Brack, Katrin ......................................19:1,78;19:3,31
Bradley, Jack ....................................................19:1,47
Bradwell, Mike .............................................19:1,6,42
Braenne, Trond.................................................19:1,51
Brandenburg, Hans-Jrn ..................................19:2,52
Braunschweig, Stphane .................19:1,49;19:2,10-1
Brecht, Bertolt
The Caucasian Chalk Circle ......................19:3,37
In the Jungle of Cities .............................19:2,23-4
Man is Man.................................................19:2,23
Threepenny Opera ......................................19:3,40
Bredehft, Susanne .....................................19:1,55,58
Bregenz Festival ...........................................19:3,13-6
Breuer, Lee
Dollhouse....................................................19:3,58
Britten, Benjamin
Death in Venice .......................................19:3,13-4
Peter Grimes...............................................19:2,47
Brochen, Juklie
The True History of La Perichole .............19:2,8-9
Brmmelmeier, Klaus ......................................19:3,33
Brook, Peter .....................................................19:1,74
Bruce-Lockhart, Dugald ..................................19:1,25
Bruckner, Ferdinand

Becker, Ben......................................................19:3,40
Becker, Dirk .......................................................19:3,7
Beckett, Samuel
Endgame..................................................19:2,11-2
Happy Days...........................................19:1,29-32
Krapps Last Tape.......................................19:3,53
Beglau, Bibiana ............................................19:2,52-3
Beil, Hermann ..................................................19:3,38
Beilharz, Ricarda .............................................19:3,26
Belbel, Sergei...................................................19:2,33
Beln, Ana........................................................19:3,55
Bell, Tony.........................................................19:1,26
Bellambe, Laurent............................................19:2,14
Bellver, Esther..................................................19:2,38
Benamara, Azeddine ........................................19:3,62
Benavent, Enric................................................19:2,38
Benecke, Johannes ...........................................19:3,12
Benesch, Vivienne............................................19:2,31
Bnichou, Charles ............................................19:3,66
Bennett, Alan
The History Boys ..........................................19:1,9
Benthin, Michael..............................................19:2,55
Bergen, theatre in..........................................19:1,52-4
Berger, John
King ............................................................19:3,53
Bernhard, Thomas
The Ignorant Man and the Fool.................19:2,27
The President ..........................................19:3,65-6
To the End...................................................19:3,64
Berlin, theatre in ........................19:2,51-8;19:3,25-36
Berlioz, Hector
Benvenuto Cellini......................................19:3,4-7
Bernstein, Leonard
Candide ...................................................19:1,81-4
Berthom, Philippe ..........................................19:2,23
Berutti, Jean-Claude.........................................19:2,11
Bettini, Andrea .................................................19:3,33
Betts, Kate
On the Third Day ........................................19:1,8
Beyer, Robert ...................................................19:2,53
Bianchi, Renato..................................................19:2,7
Bieito, Calixto ..........................19:1,88-90;19:3,53,55
Bierbichler, Josef ..........................................19:2,53-4
Bigsby, Benjamin
Beowulf .......................................................19:3,60
Billington, Michael..........................19:1,6,25;19:2,29
Birkin, Jane ......................................................19:2,19
Biyouna ............................................................19:2,19
Bizet, Georges
Carmen .......................................................19:3,32
Blanco, Jess....................................................19:1,93
Blauwe Maandag, Belgium ..........................19:1,74-5

46

Carter, Pamela and Selma Dimitrijevic

Game Theory ..............................................19:3,60
Caruso, Eric .....................................................19:2,10
Carvalho, Gonalo ...........................................19:3,75
Carey, Geoffrey................................................19:2,21
Casaban, Philippe.............................................19:2,25
Cascais, Teatro Experimental de, Portugal...19:3,73-8
Castajn, Rafa ..................................................19:2,34
Castellucci, Romeo
Hey, Girl!....................................................19:3,17
Castellini, Federica ..........................................19:3,64
Castex, Eric ......................................................19:2,10
Castorf, Frank ...........................19:2,23;19:3,17,26,37
Catalifo, Patrick .................................................19:2,7
Cathomas, Bruno .............................................19:2,53
Cauchetier, Patrice ...........................................19:3,64
Cavalli, Francesco
La Didone ...................................................19:3,58
Cecchi, Carlo ................................................19:2,10-1
Cervantes, Miguel de....................................19:2,44-5
Don Quixote ...............................................19:3,73
Chaillot, Thtre National de, Paris.................19:2,21
Chambas, Jean-Paul .........................................19:2,14
Char, Ren
Claire ..........................................................19:3,17
Feuillets dHypnos .....................................19:3,17
Charbau, Eric ...................................................19:2,25
Charman, Matt
A Night at the Dogs ......................................19:1,5
Cheek by Jowl, London ...................................19:2,21
Chekhov, Anton...........................................19:1,75,78
The Seagull............................19:1,7,87,91;19:3,54
Three Sisters ...........................19:2,54-5;19:3,34-6
Uncle Vanya...........................................19:1,78,80
Cherboeuf, Frdric .........................................19:3,65
Chinn, Hai-Ting ...............................................19:3,58
Christie, Gwendolin .........................................19:2,21
Christie, Joanna...........................................19:2,30,32
Christy, Anna....................................................19:1,84
Churchill, Caryl
Blue Heart ..................................................19:1,39
Drunk Enough to Say I Love You?.......19:1,6,33-6
Cielecka, Magdalena........................................19:3,20
Citizens Theatre, Glasgow...............................19:1,23
Clarel, Deavid ..................................................19:2,14
Claudel, Paul
Break of Noon.............................................19:3,64
Clavier, Franois ..............................................19:2,10
Cloarec, Christine.............................................19:2,11
Clolus, Emmanuel............................................19:3,66
Coca, Jordi .......................................................19:3,53
Cocteau, Jean ...................................................19:3,60

Krankheit der Jugend............................19:3,29-30

Brune, Ccile ...................................................19:2,26
Brunier, Flora ...................................................19:2,11
Brunschwig, Emmanuele .................................19:2,26
Buether, Miriam ...............................................19:1,18
Buffini, Moira
Dinner...........................................................19:1,7
Bullmore, Amelia
Mammels.......................................................19:1,6
Burke, Gregory
Black Watch..........................................19:1,7,21-2
Gagarin Way...............................................19:1,22
Burrell, Ty ...................................................19:1,33,35
Burns, Angie ....................................................19:2,21
Burt, Simon
Bottle Universe .............................................19:1,6
Burton, Ian ....................................................19:1,82-3
Bush Theatre, London...................................19:1,6,42
Bushell, Kirsty .................................................19:3,81
Butler, Leo
Lucky Dog...................................................19:1,41
Butter, Markus .................................................19:3,22
Butterworth, Jez
The Winterling ..............................................19:1,6
Byrne, John
Tutti Frutti ..................................................19:1,24
Caballero, Manuel and Miguel Echegaray
El duo de la Africana...........................19:2,49-50
Cceres, Luciano..............................................19:3,54
Caille-Perret, Damien ......................................19:3,64
Calvario, Philippe ............................................19:2,19
Cameron, Earl ..................................................19:3,84
Cameron, Richard
The Glee Club...............................................19:1,5
Camus, Albert
The Just Assassins ......................................19:3,64
Cannes, theatre in .......................................19:3,67-70
Cano, Nacho.....................................................19:2,33
Canut, Carles....................................................19:1,89
Caposella, Vinicio ............................................19:3,56
Cara, Ruggero ..................................................19:3,61
Carey, Geoffrey..................................................19:2,6
Carmichael, Hayley .........................................19:1,28
Carnesky, Marisa..............................................19:1,11
Jewess Tatooess ..........................................19:1,11
Magic War ..................................................19:1,11
Caron, Adeline .................................................19:2,26
Carrascal, Gabriel ............................................19:2,33
Carreras, Joan ...............19:1,85-6;19:2,49-50;19:3,53
Carsen, Robert ..............................................19:1,81-4
Carter, Angela
Nights at the Circus....................................19:1,28

47

Da Costa, Cidalia ...............................................19:2,5

Dahl, Oliver Hole .........................................19:1,52-3
Damrau, Diana .................................................19:3,11
Dana, Rodolphe ............................................19:2,14-5
Daniel, Paul......................................................19:3,14
Dasch, Annette ...................................................19:3,8
David, Gilles ....................................................19:2,11
Davies, Neal.....................................................19:3,60
Degliame, Claude.............................................19:2,19
Deguy, Marie-Amelle ......................................19:2,23
Delamere, Robert ...............................................19:1,8
Delaveaux, Guillaume .......................................19:2,5
Delay, Florence ...............................................19:2,4,6
Demarcy-Mota, Emmanuel..............................19:2,23
De Miguel, Chema...........................................19:2,38
Dende, Otto ......................................................19:1,56
Dene, Kirsten ...................................................19:2,54
Deschamps, Jrme and Macha Makeeff
The Bad Life .................................................19:2,8
Dethleffsen, Benedix........................................19:2,16
Deutsches Theater, Berlin.............................19:2,55-6
Devon, theatre in ........................................19:1,15-20
DHayer, Alain .................................................19:2,23
Diaz, Enrique ...................................................19:3,55
Didier, Grard ..................................................19:2,21
Dillane, Stephen..........................................19:1,33,35
Dillon, Hugo ....................................................19:2,19
Dimitrijevic, Selma
Night Time ..................................................19:3,60
Dionisotti, Paolo ..............................................19:3,57
Dipper, David...................................................19:1,41
Dixon, Carol.....................................................19:3,83
DOdorico, Andrea .......................................19:2,35-6
Dhler, Andreas ..........................................19:3,26,31
Dolinski, Sven..................................................19:3,10
Dombroski, Paula........................................19:3,27,31
Domingo, Marta..........................................19:1,88,90
Dotoyevsky, Fyodor
The Gambler ..........................................19:3,71-2
Doyle, John ......................................................19:1,22
Draeger, Lea.....................................................19:2,53
Drse, Jorinde ..................................................19:3,12
Dromgoole, Dominic .........................................19:1,8
Druc, Marie ......................................................19:3,63
Drury, Ken........................................................19:1,22
Dubois, Patricia................................................19:2,25
Duchne, Frdrique ........................................19:2,23
Duclos, Philippe.................................................19:2,6
Dujardin, Nomie .........................................19:2,21-2
Duras, Marguerite
Summer Rain at Hiroshima.....................19:2,12-3
Drrenmatt, Friedrich

La voix humaine....................................19:1,29-30
Codina, Juan.....................................................19:2,34
Colao, Amelia Rey .........................................19:3,75
Colas, Hubert ..................................................19:2,5-6
Colchat, Nicole .............................................19:2,21-2
Colet, Yves .......................................................19:2,12
Colin, Christian ................................................19:2,21
Colline, Thtre de la, Paris.......19:2,16-8,23;19:3,65
Collings, David ................................................19:2,21
Comdie-Franaise, Paris..........19:2,4,6-7,28;19:3,64
Company of the Possessed, Paris ....................19:2,14
Complicit, Theatre de, London
A Disappearing Number .........................19:3,37-8
Congo, theatre in the ....................................19:3,20-1
Constable, Paule...............................................19:3,13
Constanza, Dominique .....................................19:2,11
Copi
Eva Pern ...................................................19:3,54
Le Frigo......................................................19:2,13
The Hens Dont Have Chairs..................19:2,13-4
Loretta Strong..........................................19:2,13-4
Corbery, Loc .....................................................19:2,7
Corneille, Pierre
LIllusion comique......................................19:2,37
Corte, Justine del
Der Alpentraum vom Glck ....................19:3,41-2
Crte-Real, Teresa............................................19:3,78
Cosserat, Stphanie ..........................................19:3,64
Cottrell, Richard...............................................19:3,78
Couillaud, Mlanie...........................................19:2,14
Couleau, Jean-Pierre ........................................19:3,65
Coustillac, Ccile..........................................19:2,10-1
Craig, Alistair...................................................19:1,25
Crimp, Martin
Advice to Iraqi Women .................................19:1,7
Attempts on Her Life ...............................19:2,14-5
Cruel and Tender..........................................19:1,7
Fewer Emergencies ......................................19:1,6
Crippa, Giovanni..............................................19:3,64
Criswell, Kim...................................................19:1,84
Croft, Richard ....................................................19:3,8
Cruz, Irene .......................................................19:3,74
La Cubana, Barcelona
Cmeme el coco, negro ..............................19:2,50
Mam quiero ser famoso............................19:3,55
Cullen, Jonathan...............................................19:2,30
Cumming, Alan ................................................19:3,57
Cunill, Gonzalo ................................................19:3,53
Cunill, Lusa .............................................19:2,49-50
Cunningham, Davy ..........................................19:3,16
Curran, Tony ....................................................19:3,57
Cusack, Catherine ............................................19:1,22

48

Fitch, Georgia
Adrenaline . . .Heart.....................................19:1,6
Fliakos, Ari.......................................................19:3,58
Flimm, Jrgen ....................................................19:3,5
Flores, Alfons...................................................19:1,89
Flotat ................................................................19:1,87
Flynn, Joe.........................................................19:1,25
Fogacci, Gianluigi............................................19:3,64
Font, Pere Eugeni.............................................19:1,86
Fonzo Bo, Marcial di....................................19:2,13-4
Ford, John
Tis Pity Shes a Whole...............................19:3,62
Forestier, Alexis ...............................................19:3,17
Forqu, Vernica...........................................19:2,35-6
Fortes, Daniela .................................................19:3,55
Fosse, Jan ....................................................19:1,52,78
Fossy, Guy........................................................19:2,37
France, Kate .....................................................19:2,20
France, theatre in......19:1,81-4;19:2,4-28;19:3,17-24,
61-70
Franon, Alain ..............................................19:2,16-8
Francovich, Massimo de ..................................19:3,64
Frederick, Malcolm ......................................19:3,83-4
Freesed, Olaf ....................................................19:3,10
Fremiot, Anne ....................................................19:2,6
Frey, Sami ........................................................19:3,17
Friedman, Sonia .................................................19:1,8
Friel, Brian
Afterplay .....................................................19:1,86
Fritsch, Herbert ................................................19:2,24
Fritz, Burkhard...................................................19:3,6
Fritz, Wolfgang ................................................19:3,16
Fromager, Alain ...............................................19:2,26
Frost, Emma
Airsick...........................................................19:1,6
Fura dels Baus, Barcelona
Imperium.....................................................19:3,53
Gabel, Jacques ............................................19:2,14,18
Galn, Edouardo and Luis
La curva de la felicidad .............................19:2,40
El Lazarillo.................................................19:2,39
La mujer que se pareca a Marilyn............19:2,40
Galanou, Evita .................................................19:3,16
Galcern, Jordi
El mtodo Grnholm...............................19:2,33-4
Gallaienne, Guillaume .....................................19:2,11
Galloway, Stephen ...........................................19:3,12
Galvez, Maria.....................................................19:2,6
Garcia, Rodrigo
Cruda. Vuelta y vuelta. Al punto. Chamusada
19:3,18-9
Gareisen, Christoph .........................................19:2,54

Play Strindberg .......................................19:1,87-8

Dusseldorf, theatre in.......................................19:2,20
Dutertre, Patrick.................................................19:2,7
Eckert, Rinde
Orpheus X ...............................................19:3,58-9
Echanove, Juan ...........................................19:1,88-90
Edinburgh Festival......................................19:3,57-60
Edwards, Jango...........................................19:3,67-70
Cabaret Cabron ..........................................19:3,68
Cabaret Gonzalez .......................................19:3,69
Eichel, Julishka ................................................19:3,30
Eidinger, Lars...................................................19:2,23
Ekpenyon, Oku .............................................19:3,83-4
Elder, Lonne II
Splendid Mummer ...................................19:3,83-4
Eldridge, David
MAD ........................................................19:1,6,46
Market Boy ...................................................19:1,7
Elejaide, Israel .................................................19:2,38
Elliott, Eman ....................................................19:1,21
Elliott, Marianne ................................................19:1,6
Elmosnino, Eric ..................................19:2,18;19:3,63
Emerson, Mark.................................................19:3,82
England, theatre in ..19:1,4-48;19:2,29-32;19:3,78-84
Enke, Pal ..........................................................19:3,30
Erdmann, Mojca.................................................19:3,8
Ernst, Norbert...................................................19:3,51
Espert, Nuria ....................................................19:1,87
Esposito, Raffaele ............................................19:3,64
Euripides
The Bacchae ...............................................19:3,57
Iphigenia in Tauris ....................................19:2,5-6
Fabra, Bel..................................................19:1,89-90
Faventines, Emmanuel.....................................19:3,66
Featherstone, Vicky..........................................19:1,22
Ferdane, Marie-Sophie .........................19:2,7;19:3,63
Fernndez, Jos Ramn
24/7 .............................................................19:1,94
Imagina.......................................................19:1,85
Los manos...................................................19:1,94
Nina .........................................................19:1,91-2
Para quemar la memoria ...........................19:1,94
Sueo y Capricho...............................19:1,91,93-4
Fernandez, Raul ...............................................19:2,14
Ferren, Catherine..............................................19:2,11
Ferson, Christine ................................................19:2,7
Fiat, Christine...................................................19:3,17
Fiorentino, Antonio ............................................19:2,7
Finley, Gerald...................................................19:3,11
Finzi, Samuel ...................................................19:2,56
Fisbach, Frdrick.......................................19:3,17,19
Fischer, Ernst ...................................................19:1,10

49

The American Pilot.......................................19:1,7

Yellow Moon ...............................................19:1,22
Griffiths, Richard................................19:2:1,29-30,32
Grigolli, Olivia.................................................19:2,16
Grinfeld, Louis.................................................19:2,26
Groissbck, Gnther ........................................19:3,11
Grose, Carl...............................................19:1,25,27-8
Grotowski, Jerzy...........................................19:1,75-6
Grntzig, Sonja ................................................19:2,51
Grnli, Jan........................................................19:1,52
Guerin, Eric......................................................19:3,65
Guillem, Sylvie ................................................19:3,56
Gupta, Tainka
Sugar Mummies............................................19:1,6
Guth, Claus ..............................................19:3,11-2,53
Gyabronka, Jozsef............................................19:2,20
Hacker, Norman ..........................................19:3,31,43
Hall, Edward.................................................19:1,25-6
Hamburg, theatre in..............................19:3,40-1,44-5
Hancisse, Thierry .............................................19:3,63
Hancock, Richard.............................................19:1,13
Hands, Marina ..............................................19:3,64-5
Hanson, Suzan .................................................19:3,59
Harb, Alex ..........................................................19:3,9
Hardy, Rosemary ..........................................19:2,15-6
Hare, David
Amys Room.............................................19:3,74-5
Harrower, David.................................................19:1,7
Blackbird ..............................................19:1,7,52-3
Knives in Hens............................................19:1,39
Hartinger, Dorothee .........................................19:3,28
Hartmann, Jorg............................................19:2,23,63
Hawlata, Franz .................................................19:3,51
Haydn, Franz Josef
Armida ..........................................................19,7-9
Heckmann, Jochen .............................................19:3,8
Heigel, Catherine ...............................................19:2,7
Heine, Matthias ................................................19:3,33
Hembleb, Lukas ...............................................19:3,63
Herbstmeyer, Mireille ......................................19:2,26
Herrmann, Karl-Ernst ......................................19:2,54
Hersey, David...................................................19:2,30
Hess, Walter .....................................................19:3,34
Hicks, Greg ......................................................19:3,82
Hiddleston, Tom...............................................19:2,21
Higgins, Paul....................................................19:1,21
Himmelmann, Philipp...................................19:3,15-6
Hinojosa, Maria ...............................................19:2,49
Hintermeier, Volker..........................................19:3,12
Hiplito, Carlos................................................19:2,34
Hodge, Stephen ................................................19:1,15
Hoevels, Daniel................................................19:3,26

Gas, Mario .......................................................19:1,85

Gavrillovic, Catherine........................................19:2,8
Gelabert, Elisabet........................................19:2,37,48
Gergiev, Valery...................................................19:3,7
Genet, Jean
The Maids ...................................................19:3,73
Les Paravents........................................19:3,19-20
Germany, theatre in..............19:1,55-80;19:2,14-5,20,
22-4,51-58;19:3,25-52
Gerstner, Muriel..................................19:2,53;19:3,32
Ghalam, Sharokh Moshkin .............................19:2,4,5
Gielgud, Sir John .............................................19:1,80
Gill, Peter ....................................................19:1,40,48
The York Realist............................................19:1,5
Gilmour, Soutra................................................19:3,81
Giorgetti, Florence ...........................................19:2,19
Giroutru, Frdric ............................................19:2,19
Glasgow, theatre in .......................................19:1,21-4
Godinho, Renato ..............................................19:3,74
Gpfert, Peter Hans ......................................19:3,32-3
Goerden, Elmar ................................................19:3,41
Goethe, Johann
Faust .....................................19:2,55,57;19:3,45-6
Leiden des jungen Werthers ..................19:3,27,43
Torquato Tasso ........................................19:3,43-4
Goldoni, Carlo ..............................................19:3,55-6
Il Campiello..................................................19:2,7
La familia dellantiquario ..........................19:3,55
The Fan ...................................................19:3,63-4
One of the last Evenings of Carnival .........19:3,55
Gombrowicz, Witold
Yvonne, Princess of Burgundy....................19:3,73
Gmez, Jos Luis.........................19:1,87-8;19:2,35-6
Gorki, Maxim
Barbarians...............................................19:2,23-4
Gosch, Jrgen ...........................19:2,20,56;19:3,12,30
Gotscheff, Dimiter................................19:3,30-2,42-3
Gouram, Zakariya ............................................19:3,66
Graham, Scott ..................................................19:1,18
Graa, Hammon..................................................19:2,7
Grand, Charline................................................19:3,64
Gravire, Pierre-Felix .........................19:2,16;19:3,65
Gravklev, Kari..................................................19:1,49
Grawert, Bernd.................................................19:3,36
Grazioso, Paolo ................................................19:2,10
Grec Festival, Barcelona ..............................19:3,53-6
Green, Tucker
Stoning Mary ................................................19:1,6
Greenaway, Peter .............................................19:3,56
Greenwood, Judith ...........................................19:2,21
Grgoire, Christophe........................................19:2,23
Greig, David .........................................19:1,5;19:3,55

50

Japan, theatre in ..........................................19:3,19-20

Jara, Jorge ........................................................19:3,16
Jeffreys, Stephen ..............................................19:1,40
Jelenik, Elfriede
Ulrike Maria Stuart.................................19:3,25-6
Das Werk ....................................................19:3,25
Johannessen, Ellen ...........................................19:1,53
Johnson, Craig .................................................19:1,28
Johnson, Terry
Piano/Forte...................................................19:1,6
Jordan, Peter.....................................................19:3,31
Jouanneau, Jol ................................................19:2,14
Joovanovich, Brandon ..................................19:3,15-6
Jggli, Uell.......................................................19:2,54
Jrgensen, Siren ...............................................19:1,52
Kaimbacher, Alexander....................................19:3,10
Kamla, Houda Ben...........................................19:3,61
Kane, Sarah .....................................19:1,5,52;19:2,53
4:48 Psychosis............................................19:3,54
Blasted .....................................................19:1,5,41
Kantor, Tadeusz................................................19:1,74
Kelly, Dennis....................................................19:1,41
Love and Money ...........................................19:1,7
Osama the Hero............................................19:1,7
Kelly, John .......................................................19:3,59
Kelly, Traci
In the Parlour..........................................19:1,13-4
Kemp, Will..................................................19:2,30,32
Kempson, Sibyl................................................19:1,56
Kennedy, Andrew.............................................19:3,60
Kenyon, Mel ......................................................19:1,7
Kersten, Nicole ...........................................19:1,55,58
Khan, Akram ....................................................19:3,55
Kirchhoff, Corinna...................................19:3,12,33-4
Kirchner, Ignaz.................................................19:3,10
Kirsch, Uli........................................................19:3,11
Kloempkjen, Tina...............................................19:3,9
Kneehigh Company, England...............19:1,4,25,27-8
Knopp, Felix ....................................................19:3,26
Kristiansen, Petter Width .................................19:1,53
Khler, Tilmann..........................................19:3,29-30
Kolb, Eve .........................................................19:3,29
Kolts, Bernard-Marie
The Return from the Desert ....................19:2,27-8
Korn, Artur.......................................................19:3,51
Koslowsky, Jrg ...............................................19:3,26
Kovaleska, Maija ...............................................19:3,6
Kourghli, Sabrina.............................................19:2,14
Kourrich, Yasin ................................................19:3,33
Kramer, Daniel .............................................19:3,81-2
Krappatsch, Sylvana ........................................19:3,35
Kreiger, Johann Philipp ...................................19:2,57

Hrbiger, Mavie ...............................................19:3,12

Hoffmann, Frank....................................19:3,37,43,46
Hoffmann, Katrin.............................................19:2,54
Hofmann, Judith...............................................19:3,27
Hoggatt, Stephen..............................................19:1,18
Hollaender, Friedrich .......................................19:2,57
Hollands, Guy ..................................................19:1,23
Homar, Lluis .................................................19:1,87-8
Hoppe, Bettina .................................................19:2,54
Horvth, dn von
Geschichten aus dem Wiener Wald ............19:2,56
Horwood, Joel
A Suffolk Western........................................19:3,60
Hosemann, Mrc..............................................19:2,56
Houellebecq, Michel
Platform...................................................19:1,88-9
Hoyle, David.................................................19:1,12-3
Hovig, Andrea Braein ......................................19:1,51
The Divine David on Ice ............................19:1,12
Jubilee.........................................................19:1,12
Hubacher, Rahel...............................................19:3,33
Hudson, Richard ...........................................19:3,13-4
Hller, Sandra ..................................................19:3,33
Huge, Adrien ....................................................19:3,58
Hungary, theatre in...........................................19:2,20
Hunger-Bhler, Robert.....................................19:3,12
Hunter, Helena .................................................19:1,13
Huppert, Isabelle ..............................................19:2,12
Hurt, Matthew
Believe ........................................................19:3,60
Hytner, Nicholas ................................................19:1,7
Ibsen, Henrik ..............................................19:1,49-54
Brand ..........................................................19:1,49
Cataline ......................................................19:1,52
A Doll House ..............................................19:2,52
An Enemy of the People..................19:2,37-8,48-9
Ghosts .....................19:1,49-51;19:2,52-3;19:3,32
Hedda Gabler..................19:1,49-50;19:2,22-3,52
John Gabriel Borkman ...............................19:1,49
Lady from the Sea.......................................19:1,52
Little Eyolf...............................................19:1,52-4
The Master Builder .................................19:1,51-2
Peer Gynt....................................................19:1,49
When We Dead Awaken..............................19:1,52
The Wild Duck ............................................19:1,50
Ionesco, Eugene
The Bald Soprano ...................................19:2,25-6
Italy, theatre in .............................19:2,10-1;19:3,71-2
Jacobsen, Anne Marit.......................................19:1,51
Jacques, Martyn ...............................................19:3,58
James, Peter Francis.........................................19:2,31
Jankov, Martina..............................................19:3,12

51

Lvy, Bernard ...............................................19:2,11-2

Lewis, David ....................................................19:3,58
Ley, Pablo .....................................................19:3,53-4
Leygnac, Philippe ..............................................19:2,8
Lichtner, Giulio.............................................19:2,11-2
Liebau, Eva ......................................................19:3,12
Lien, Anna........................................................19:3,62
Liermier, Jean ...............................................19:3,62-3
Linyekula, Faustin
Dinozord..................................................19:3,20-1
Lissner, Stephane .............................................19:1,84
Llopis, Blai.......................................................19:1,90
Lloyd-Roberts, Jeffrey .....................................19:3,60
Lw, Hans ........................................................19:3,26
London, theatre in ...........19:1,5-14,25-36;19:3,78-84
Lope de Vega
Fuenteovejuna ............................................19:3,73
Peribanez...................................................19:2,4,6
Lorient, Juan ....................................................19:3,19
Loriquet, Franois ..............................................19:2,8
Lortzing, Albert
Der Waffenschmied.....................................19:3,48
Lotzmann, Barbara...........................................19:3,33
Loy, Christoph....................................................19:3,7
Luckay, Robert.................................................19:1,26
Lux, Regis ..........................................................19:2,5
Lynch, David....................................................19:2,54
Lyric Hammersmith, London ..................19:1,25,27-8
Lyssewski, Drte..............................................19:3,34
MacDonald, James........................................19:1,6,34
Madico, Ferran.................................................19:3,53
Maertens, Michael ......................................19:3,12,34
Maertens, Peter ................................................19:3,26
Madrid, theatre in ....................19:1,85-94;19:2,33-46
Maier, Andreas .................................................19:1,55
Maillet, Pierre ..................................................19:2,14
Mlkki, Susanna...............................................19:3,60
Mallison, Oliver ...............................................19:3,34
Mankell, Henning
Lampedusa ............................................19:3,38-40
Marchand, Nicolas ...........................................19:2,13
Marioge, Philippe.............................................19:2,23
Marion, Madeleine ...........................................19:2,11
Marivaux, Pierre
La Dispute ...............................................19:2,21-2
Marlowe, Christopher
Dido and Aeneas .....................................19:3,32-3
Marsillach,Adolpho ....................................19:1,87,90
Marthaler, Christoph.....................................19:2,56-8
Die Frucht fliegt......................................19:2,56-8
Winch Only..............................................19:2,14-5
Mathieu, Claude.................................................19:2,7

Kriegenburg, Andreas...........................19:3,26-7,34-6
Kristiansen, Petter Width .................................19:1,53
Kroetz, Franz Xaver
Mensch Meier .............................................19:1,23
Kurt, Stefan .................................................19:2,52,56
Kurz, Annette................................................19:1,78-9
Kurz, Daniele ...................................................19:3,14
Kushner, Tony
Angels in America..............19:1,46;19:3,20,79-82
Homebody/Kabul........................................19:2,37
The Illusion.................................................19:2,37
Kurzak, Aleksandra..........................................19:3,10
LaBute, Neil
Fat Pig........................................................19:2,34
Lacascade, Eric.............................................19:2,23-4
Laffargue, Laurent ...........................................19:2,25
Lafferentz, Wieland..........................................19:3,51
Lagarce, Jean-Luc ............................................19:2,25
The Distant Country................................19:2,14-5
Lagerpusch, Ole ...............................................19:3,31
Laim, Stphane..........................................19:3,29,44
Lamana, Adrin ..........................................19:2,39-40
Lang, Valrie ....................................................19:3,64
Lanton, Philippe ...........................................19:2,12-3
Lara, Juanma ....................................................19:1,90
Lasalle, Jacques .................................................19:2,7
Larroque, Pierre-Jean.......................................19:2,14
Lausada, Abraham ...........................................19:2,37
Lavaudant, George .............................19:1,87;19:3,53
Lawrence, Amanda ..........................................19:1,28
Lazzarini, Guilia ..............................................19:3,64
Leal, Francesco ................................................19:3,55
Leal, Paco.........................................................19:1,86
Lebinsky, Horst ................................................19:2,56
Le Besco, Islid .................................................19:2,21
LeBrun, Francoise..............................................19:2,5
LeCompte, Elizabeth .......................................19:3,58
Lee, Stewart
Late But Live ..............................................19:3,60
Le Buernec, Anne ............................................19:3,65
Lemetre, Jean-Jacques .....................................19:3,23
Lenkiewicz, Rebecca
Shoreditch Madonna ....................................19:1,5
Lepage, Robert.................................................19:3,53
Lepoivre, Elsa ....................................................19:2,6
Letailleur, Christine .........................................19:3,64
Leterme, Vincent................................................19:2,8
Letria, Jos Jorge
A Rainha do Ch....................................19:3,77-8
Lvque, Guillaume.........................................19:3,65
Levine, Michael ...............................................19:1,83
Levy, Adam ......................................................19:3,82

52

Minks, Wilfried ................................................19:3,41

Mir, Pau .........................................................19:3,55
Mitchell, Ann ...................................................19:3,80
Mitchell, Katie ..............................................19:1,7,34
Mitou, Richard .................................................19:2,16
Mnouchkine, Ariane....................................19:3,17,75
Le Dernier Caravanserail ..........................19:3,22
Les Ephmres ........................................19:3,22-4
Molire, Agathe ...............................................19:3,66
Molire
The Doctor in Spite of Himself ...............19:3,62-3
The Misanthrope.........................................19:3,63
Tartuffe............................................19:3,30-2,42-3
Molina, Olivia ..................................................19:2,39
Moncl, Sandra ................................................19:1,85
Monnier, Henri...................................................19:2,8
Montalembert, Thibault de ...........................19:2,12-3
Montes, Ana .....................................................19:2,39
Monteverdi, Claudio...................................19:3,57-60
LOrfeo .......................................................19:3,57
Moore, David Adam ........................................19:1,85
Mooshammer, Helmut .....................................19:3,31
Moreau, Jeanne ................................................19:3,17
Mortier, Gerard .............................................19:3,5,48
Moss, Chloe
Christmas is Miles Away ..............................19:1,6
Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus .........................19:3,57-8
Le nozze di Figaro...................................19:3,11-2
Mozas, Ocan................................................19:2,5,25
Moya, Ricardo .................................................19:1,91
Mller, Heiner
Der Auftrug.................................................19:3,32
Hamletmachine...........................................19:2,12
Quartett..................................................19:3,17,32
Munich, theatre in.........................................19:3,34-6
Muoz, Chema.................................................19:3,55
Munro, Rona
Long Time Dead .........................................19:3,60
Myles, Chris.....................................................19:1,26
Myrtvedt, Olav .............................................19:1,50-1
Mrk-Eidem, Alexander ...............................19:1,50-2
Nagy, Zsolt.......................................................19:2,20
Nanterre-Amadiers, Paris .......................19:2,6-7,12-3
Naoura, Laurent ..............................................19:3,6-7
Napier, John ................................................19:2,30.32
Narros, Miguel..............................................19:2,35-6
National Theatre, London ..................................19:1,7
Natrella, Laurent .............................................19:2,4,6
Naumann, Bert..............................................19:2,23-4
Neves, Fernanda...............................................19:3,78
Nickel, Christian ..............................................19:3,28
Nielson, Anthony

Marthouet, Franois......................................19:2,12-3
Martinelli, Jean-Louis .......................19:2,6-7;19:3,66
Marty, Charles..................................................19:3,62
Marull, Laia .....................................................19:1,91
Maselli, Titina ..................................................19:2,10
Masteroff, Joe
Cabaret .......................................................19:3,40
Masula, Michael...............................................19:3,28
Matschke, Matthias.......................................19:2,56-8
Maura, Carmen ................................................19:2,35
Maurer, Kathi .....................................................19:3,7
Maxwell, Richard
The Frame (nach Amerika!)....................19:1,55-8
May, Ignacio Garcia
Viaje del Parnaso ....................................19:2,44-6
May, Jodhi..........................................................19:1,7
Mayenberg, Marius von..............................19:1,52,78
Mayer, Gabriele ...............................................19:3,64
Mayette, Muriel ............................................19:2,27-8
Maymat, Philippe.............................................19:2,19
Mayorga, Juan.............................................19:2,37,48
El chico de la ltima fila ............................19:2,37
Mazaudier, Manuel .......................................19:2,21-2
McBurney, Simon.........................................19:3,37-8
McCormack, Catherine ....................................19:2,31
McCowan, Alec ..........................................19:2,29,32
McDonagh, Martin...........................................19:1,47
McGrath, John
The Cheviot, the Stag, and the Black,
Black Oil.......................................................19:1,2
McGuinness, David .........................................19:3,58
McIntyre, Dennis
National Anthems .......................................19:3,40
McKellen, Ian ....................................................19:1,7
McLaughlin, Marie ..........................................19:3,12
McMillan, Joyce ..............................................19:1,22
McNee, Jodie ...................................................19:2,21
McPherson, Conor
The Seafarer .................................................19:1,7
Medina, Fabiana.................................................19:2,6
Meirik, Vertoria................................................19:1,52
Menier Chocolate Factory, London ...................19:1,7
Menzel, Hans-Jochen.......................................19:3,12
Mercier, Mal.....................................................19:1,29
Mestres, Josep Maria .......................................19:3,53
Meyerhoff, Joachim ....................................19:3,28,44
Michel, Kattrin.................................................19:3,61
Miesch, Philippe ..............................................19:3,62
Mikal, Ludmila...............................................19:3,64
Milhaud, Sylvie................................................19:3,66
Miller, Arthur ...................................................19:2,37
Mills, Jonathan............................................19:3,53,57

53

Paulmann, Annette ...........................................19:3,35

Pauthe, Ccile ..................................................19:2,27
Pavelka, Michael..............................................19:1,26
Pavlavsky, Angel..............................................19:2,14
Pavloff, Alexandre ...........................................19:2,21
Pearson, Neil ......................................................19:1,8
Pedregal, Helio .............................................19:1,86-7
Peduzzi, Laurent ..............................................19:2,25
Perceval, Luc ...................................................19:2,53
Schlachten! ............................................19:1,74,78
Perea, Fran .......................................................19:3,55
Prez, Alicia ....................................19:1,85-6;19:2,50
Persighetti, Simon.........................................19:1,15-6
Petrenko, Mikhail...............................................19:3,7
Petrinsky, Natascha ..........................................19:3,60
Peymann, Claus ...............................................19:2,51
Piccolo Teatro, Milan.......................................19:3,64
Pieiller, Jacques................................................19:2,10
Pierre, Herv ....................................................19:2,25
Pimenta, Helena ...............................................19:2,37
Pimlott, Steven...................................................19:1,8
Pinter, Harold ...................................................19:2,37
Betrayal ......................................................19:2,12
Piontek, Ina ......................................................19:3,30
Piper, Myfawnwy.............................................19:3,13
Pirandello, Luigi
The Mountain Giants ..............................19:2,24-5
Six Characters in Search of an Author ......19:2,10
To Clothe the Naked................................19:2,10-1
Pirello, Mario ...................................................19:3,61
Pitoiset, Dominique ......................................19:3,61-2
Plachetka, Adam ................................................19:3,7
Plath, Kathrin ...................................................19:3,29
Plaza, Jos Carlos............................19:1,86;19:3,55-6
Plymouth, theatre in .....................................19:1,17-8
Podalyds, Danis................................................19:2,7
Poelnitz, Christiane von...................................19:3,28
Pons, Ventura
Actresses .....................................................19:1,87
Porras, Freddy ....................................................19:2,6
Porras, Omar ......................................................19:2,6
Portillo, Blanca .............................................19:1,86-7
Portugal, theatre in .......................................19:3,73-8
Portuondo, Omara ............................................19:3,56
Pose, Jrg......................................................19:3,26-7
Potter, Tim........................................................19:1,30
Pou, Josep Maria ................................19:1,90;19:2,37
Pouley, Jrme ...................................................19:2,7
Pountney, David .................................19:2,47;19:3,13
Poveda, Miguel ................................................19:3,56
Priante, Vito .......................................................19:3,8
Pralon, Alain .........................................19:2,7;19:3,63

Realism ....................................................19:1,7,22
The Wonderful World of Dissocia ...........19:1,7,21
Neveux, Eric ....................................................19:2,19
Niangouna, Dieudonn ....................................19:3,17
Attitude Clando...........................................19:3,21
Ninagawa, Yukio.........................................19:1,19-20
Nolan, Andrew .................................................19:3,58
Nolfo, Andrea...................................................19:3,61
Nordey, Stanislas..............................................19:3,64
Norn, Lars
Clinic ..........................................................19:3,65
Norway, theatre in ......................................19:1,49-54
Novarina, Valre
Lacte inconnu ............................................19:3,18
Le Drame de la vie .....................................19:3,18
Nbling, Sebastian ..........................19:2,53;19:3,32-3
Nesch, Ueli.....................................................19:3,16
OCasey, Sean
Shadow of a Gunman .................................19:1,23
Odon, Paris.....................................................19:3,64
Ofczarek, Nicholas...........................................19:3,28
Offenbach, Jacques ............................................19:2,8
Ohm, Lotte .......................................................19:2,55
Oda, Yoshi ...................................................19:3,13-4
Oke, Alan .........................................................19:3,14
OLoughlin, Jennifer........................................19:3,11
Old Vic, London ...........................................19:1,25-6
Olivo, Oscar .....................................................19:3,12
Ordez, Marcos..............................................19:3,53
OReilly, Christian
Is This About Sex ........................................19:3,60
Oslo, theatre in ...........................................19:1,49-54
Ordez, Isaac .................................................19:2,33
OReilly, Kira...................................................19:1,13
Orella, Francesc ..........................................19:2,37,48
Osa, Live Bernhoft...........................................19:1,52
Ostendorf, Josef ............................................19:2,56-7
Ostermeier, Thomas ................19:1,49;19:2,22-3,52-4
Ostrovsky, Alexander
Talent, Philanthropists, and Admirers ....19:2,9-10
Otelli, Claudio..................................................19:3,15
Ottesen, Marian Saastad ..................................19:1,52
Pajares, Andrs.................................................19:2,35
Palli, Margherita ..............................................19:3,64
Pappelbaum, Jan...................................19:2,22-3,53-4
Paquien, Marc ..................................................19:2,21
Paris, theatre in ...........19:1,81-4;19:2,4-28;19:3,61-6
Pasqual, Llus..............................................19:3,53,55
Pasolini, Pier Paolo
Orgy ............................................................19:2,26
Patio, Jos Luis ..............................................19:2,44
Paula, Anna ......................................................19:3,75

54

Riach, Ralph.....................................................19:1,22
Rice, Emma ..................................................19:1,25-6
Richard, Nathalie .............................................19:2,13
Richards, Andrew.............................................19:3,15
Richter, Bernard .................................................19:3,8
Richter, Falk.................................19:2,54-5;19:3,9-11
Ridley, Philip
Mercury Fur .................................................19:1,7
Rigola, Alex .....................................................19:2,47
2666....................................................19:3,53-4,56
European House ........................19:1,85-6;19:3,53
Rikarte, Iaki ...................................................19:2,44
Rinke, Christoph ..............................................19:3,31
Risterucci, Claire .............................................19:2,22
Ristos, Yannos
The Return of Iphigenia ...............................19:2,5
Robinson, Leon ................................................19:3,83
Rodgers, Joan .............................................19:1,29-30
Rschmann, Dorothea......................................19:3,11
Rojas, Francesco ..............................................19:2,44
Ronconi, Luca ..................................................19:3,64
Rose, Matthew .................................................19:3,60
Rosich, Marc ....................................................19:1,88
Rosheuvel, Golda.............................................19:3,81
Rosmair, Judith ......................................19:3,25,30,42
Rossi, Paolo .....................................................19:3,71
Rouche, Philippe ..............................................19:2,8
Royal Court, London ................19:1,5-6,39-40,45,48;
19:3,60
Rsli, Sylvaine ...............................................19:3,61
Rubino, Raphael...............................................19:1,55
Rudolph, Sebastian ..........................................19:3,26
Rter, Wolfgang............................................19:1,55-6
Ruhrgestspiele.............................................19:3,37-46
Ruiz, Boris .......................................................19:1,89
Ruiz, Salvador Garcia...................................19:1,91-2
Rumolina, Sandra...............................................19:2,9
Ruzicka, Peter ....................................................19:3,5
Sabounghi, Rudy..............................................19:2,11
Sade, Marquis de
Philosophy in the Bedroom ........................19:3,64
Senz, Miguel ..................................................19:2,37
Salovaara, Milja ...............................................19:1,52
Salzburg Festival ............................................19:3,4-7
Sankaram, Kamala ...........................................19:3,58
Sartre, Jean-Paul
Les Mains sales .......................................19:3,26-7
Sastrn, Miguel Fernndez ..............................19:2,39
Saura, Carlos ....................................................19:2,35
Sauval, Catherine .............................................19:2,11
Savetier, Blandine.........................................19:3,65-6
Schade, Michael.................................................19:3,8

Prats, Natalie ....................................................19:2,25

Prebble, Lucy ...................................................19:1,41
Propeller Company, England........................19:1,25-6
Proust, Caroline ...............................................19:3,66
Puccini, Giacomo
Tosca........................................................19:3,14-6
Il tricotto.....................................................19:3,48
Puigdefbregas, Bibiana ..................................19:2,47
Pupkin Kabaret, Trieste ...................................19:3,71
Purcell, Henry
Dido and Aeneus .....................................19:3,32-3
Putnam, Olivia ............................................19:1,55,58
Pye, Tom .....................................................19:1,29-31
Quester, Hughes ...............................................19:2,23
Raba, Roland....................................................19:2,20
Rabeux, Jean-Michel ..................................19:2,19-20
Racine, Jean
Andromache...........................................19:1,76,79
Brnice.....................................................19:2,6-7
Phdra ........................................................19:3,55
Radar, DJ..........................................................19:3,56
Radcliffe, Daniel.........................................19:2,29-32
Raffielli, Bruno ................................................19:2,11
Rfols, Mingo ..................................................19:1,89
Ragogna, Emmanuel ........................................19:2,25
Ragonese, Marita .............................................19:1,55
Ramos, Santiago ...........................................19:2,35-6
Ramzy, Hossam................................................19:3,56
Ratjen, Jrg ......................................................19:3,28
Ravenhill, Mark ..........................................19:1,37-48
The Cut ....................................................19:1,7,34
Faust is Dead .............................................19:1,37
Fist..............................................................19:1,38
Handbag........................................19:1,37;19:3,53
Mother Clapps Molly House .....................19:1,46
Pool (no water) ....................................19:1,7,17-8
Product .........................................................19:1,7
Ravenhill for Breakfast...............................19:3,60
Shopping and Fucking .........................19:1,5,37-9
Some Explicit Polaroids .............................19:1,37
Raynaud, Thierry ............................................19:2,5-6
Redmond, Siobhan...........................................19:1,22
Reer, Wolfgang ................................................19:1,55
Reichwald, Matthias ........................................19:3,30
Reidy, Gabrielle ...............................................19:2,30
Reinhardt, Max ................................................19:3,12
Reinke, Martin .................................................19:3,28
Rejon, Chloe ....................................................19:2,10
Relyea, John .....................................................19:3,11
Reynaud, Jacques.............................................19:2,52
Reza, Yasmina
The God of Carnage ...............................19:3,33-4

55

Shaw, Fiona ................................................19:1,29-32

Shepherd, Mike.............................................19:1,26-7
Sherrat, Brindley ................................................19:3,6
Sicard, Julie........................................................19:2,7
Sidhom, Peter ...............................................19:3,14-5
Sienknecht, Clemens ....................................19:2,56-7
Sierz, Aleks.................................................19:1,37-46
Simaga, Lonie ..................................................19:2,7
Simonetti, Laurent ...........................................19:3,35
Sinisterra, Sanchis
Ay, Carmela!............................................19:2,34-7
Sir Henry..........................................................19:3,31
Sitj, Borja .......................................................19:3,53
Skjelbred, Ole Johan ........................................19:1,51
Smith, Maggie ..............................................19:2,31-2
Smith, Phil ....................................................19:1,15-6
Smith, Pattie.......................................................19:1,7
Sobel, Bernard ...................................................19:2,9
Solano, Irana ......................................................19:2,5
Sollich, Robert ............................................19:3,48,51
Sophocles
Electra ........................................................19:2,19
Women of Trachis .........................................19:1,7
Soyer, Eric........................................................19:3,64
Spackman, Helen .............................................19:1,10
Spain, theatre in ......19:1,85-94;19:2,33-50;19:3,53-6
Spregelburd, Rafael .........................................19:3,54
Stachowiak, Rafael ..........................................19:3,10
Stafford-Clark, Max...................................19:1,5,38-9
Steenstrup, Henriette........................................19:1,52
Steffens, Tilo ....................................................19:3,48
Stemann, Nicolas ..........................................19:3,25-6
Stenz, Markus...................................................19:3,11
Stephens, Simon ......................................19:1,37,40-8
Bluebird ......................................................19:1,39
Bring Me Sunshine .....................................19:1,39
Country Music ............................................19:1,37
One Minute .................................................19:1,46
Stockhausen, Karlheinz
Sunday Departure.......................................19:3,46
Stlzl, Philipp .................................................19:3,4-7
Stoppard, Tom
Rock n Roll ...............................................19:3,41
Stout, Adrian ....................................................19:3,58
Strasbourg, theatre in....................................19:2,10-1
Strauss, Johann
Die Fledermaus.......................................19:2,55-6
Stravinsky, Igor
Oedipus Rex................................................19:3,60
Orpheus ......................................................19:3,60
Stein, Peter............................................19:1,7;19:2,47
Stokes, Richard ................................................19:1,29

Schaffer, Peter
Equus.....................................................19:2,29-32
Schanlac, Angela..............................................19:3,12
Schaubhne, Berlin.......................................19:2,52-4
Schechner, Richard ..........................................19:1,74
Schenk, Tom ....................................................19:3,13
Schiff, Buki...................................................19:1,83-4
Schiller, Friedrich
Mary Stuart .............................................19:1,22-3
Schilling, Arpad ............................................19:2,20-1
Schimmelpfennig, Roland ............................19:3,41-2
Schittek, Sarah .................................................19:2,16
Schleiff, Tanja ..................................................19:3,34
Schmidt, Christian ...........................................19:3,12
Schmidt-Henkel, Hinrich .................................19:2,22
Schmidinger, Walter.........................................19:2,52
Schneider, Frieda .............................................19:2,16
Schne, Maja ...................................................19:3,45
Schraad, Andrea ...............................................19:3,34
Schubert, Katharina .........................................19:3,35
Schulze, Kay Bartholomaus.............................19:2,23
Schttler, Katharina .........................................19:2,23
Schtz, Johannes ..............................................19:2,20
Schuler, Duane ...................................................19:3,7
Schwab, Tina....................................................19:1,52
Schwartz, Helene ...............................................19:2,5
Schwartz, Violaine ...........................................19:2,27
Scob, Edith.......................................................19:2,14
Scotland, theatre in .......................................19:1,21-4
Selge, Edgar .....................................................19:3,45
Seide, Stuart .....................................................19:3,62
Seiffert, Peter ...................................................19:3,10
Selig, Franz-Josef.............................................19:3,12
Sella, Robert.....................................................19:2,31
Sellent, Joan .....................................................19:3,53
Serjan, Tatjana..................................................19:3,15
Serrano, David
Hoy no me puedo levanter .........................19:2,33
Shakespeare, William..................................19:1,76,78
Cymbeline ..........................19:1,4,25,27-8;19:2,21
Hamlet.........................19:1,85-6;19:2,5-6;19:3,55
King Lear....................................................19:3,78
Macbeth ......................................................19:2,20
A Midsummer Nights Dream.....19:2,19-20,34,56;
19:3,12-3
Much Ado About Nothing........................19:3,27-9
Romeo and Juliet........................................19:3,55
The Tempest ..........................19:1,23;19:3,55,61-2
Titus Andronicus....................................19:1,19-29
Twelfth Night ...........................................19:1,25-6
A Winters Tale...........................19:2,51-2;19:3,53
Sharrock, Thea .................................................19:2,30

56

Vieux Colombier, Paris.................................19:2,26-7

Vidarte, Walter ............................................19:2,37,48
Vignier, Eric..................................................19:2,12-3
Vilar, Jean.........................................................19:3,17
Villaneuva, Lluis ..............................................19:1,89
Ville, Thtre de la, Paris.................................19:2,25
Villegas, Micaela ...............................................19:2,8
Vincent, Jean-Pierre .........................................19:2,14
Vinon, Thibault ...........................................19:2,21-2
Vinken, Adrian .................................................19:1,17
Vogt, Klaus Florian ..........................................19:3,51
Vlker, Tine Rahel
Die Hhle vor der Stadt .............................19:3,29
Volksbhne, Berlin .......................................19:2,56-8
Volle, Michael ..................................................19:3,51
Voyce, Kaye .....................................................19:1,55
Wade, Laura
Other Hands .................................................19:1,5
Wagner, Gottfried.............................................19:3,51
Wagner, Gudrun ...............................................19:3,48
Wagner, Katharina ...................................19:3,1,47-52
Wagner, Miriam ...............................................19:3,12
Wagner, Nike ................................................19:3,51-2
Wagner, Richard...............................................19:2,57
The Flying Dutchman ...................19:2,47;19:3,12
Lohengrin ...................................................19:3,48
Die Meistersinger..................................19:3,47-52
Rienzi ..........................................................19:3,48
Wagner, Winifred .............................................19:3,52
Wagner, Wolfgang ...................................19:3,47-8,52
Walsh, Enda
Disco Pigs...................................................19:1,39
The Walworth Farce ...................................19:3,60
Warlikowski, Krzystof .....................................19:3,20
Warner, Deborah.........................................19:1,29-32
Waschke, Mark .............................................19:2,53-4
Watkins, Paul ...................................................19:1,30
Weber, Eleonore...............................................19:3,17
Webber, Andrew Lloyd ....................................19:2,57
Weber, Karl Maria von
Der Freischtz.........................................19:3,9-11
Weigle, Sebastien .............................................19:2,48
Weise, Christian ...............................................19:3,12
Weiss, Pater
Marat/Sade .................................................19:2,48
Weitz, Pierre-Andr ....................................19:2,19-20
Werner, Axel ....................................................19:2,52
Wesker, Arnold
The Kitchen .............................................19:3,75-6
Wheller, Hugh..................................................19:1,82
Whybrow, Graham...........................................19:1,47
Wiens, Wolfgang..............................................19:3,12

Steinbeck, John ................................................19:3,17

Stensvold, Terje................................................19:3,60
Streit, Kurt........................................................19:2,48
Strindberg, August
Dance of Death...........................................19:1,87
Strenreuter, Judith ........................................19:2,52
Stub, Erik ..................................................19:1,49-50
Stucky, Bettina..............................................19:2,56-7
Subors, Carlota...............................................19:3,53
Sunderland, Philip............................................19:3,14
Sundqvist, Bjrn ..............................................19:1,51
Superamas
Big 3rd Episode.......................................19:3,21-2
Suspect Culture, Glasgow................................19:1,24
Szwarcer, Ricardo .......................................19:3,53,56
Tabori, George
Gesegnete Mahlzeit .................................19:3,38-9
Tajouri, Sandro.................................................19:3,33
Tamayo, Jose....................................................19:3,75
Tandberg, Monna .............................................19:1,52
Taschet, Gilles....................................................19:2,7
Terrazzoni, Julie.................................................19:2,8
Thalheimer, Michael.....................................19:2,55-6
Thantry, Damian ..............................................19:3,14
Thornton, Barbara ............................................19:3,60
Tiffany, John ......................................................19:1,7
Tiger Lillies, London .......................................19:3,58
Titus, Alan........................................................19:2,48
Townsend, Tamzin........................................19:2,33-4
Trautmann, Antje .............................................19:3,30
Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh............................19:3,60
Tron Theatre, Glasgow ....................................19:1,23
Trottier, Patrice ................................................19:2,25
Turner, Cathy ................................................19:1,15-6
Tutein, Yvon.....................................................19:2,25
Ulysse, Fred .....................................................19:2,27
Valadi, Dominique ............................19:2,18;19:3,65
Valds, Ariel Garci...........................................19:2,12
Valentine, Graham E. .......................................19:2,14
Valk, Kate.........................................................19:3,58
Valle-Incln, Ramon del
Divinas Palabras........................................19:3,75
Van Riel, Sacha ................................................19:1,55
Varak, Oriane ..................................................19:2,4,6
Varoutsikos, Fabienne ......................................19:3,62
Vasco, Joo.......................................................19:3,73
Vason, Manuel .................................................19:1,13
Vera, Gerardo...........................................19:2,37-8,48
Vergier, Jean-Pierre ..........................................19:1,88
Verquin, Jean-Baptiste .......................................19:2,8
Vialle, Marie ....................................................19:2,19
Viebrock, Anna ........................................19:2,16,56-7

57

Wiggen, Magne................................................19:1,52
Wijckaert, Martine ...........................................19:2,10
Williams, Roy
Fallout ..........................................................19:1,6
Williams, Tam ..................................................19:1,25
Williams, Tennessee.........................................19:2,44
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.............................19:2,53-4
A Streetcar Named Desire.......................19:3,40-1
Wilson, Lambert...............................................19:1,84
Wilson, Richard ...............................................19:1,40
Wilson, Robert.........................................19:2,12,51-2
Winge, Stein.....................................................19:1,52
Winkler, Angela ...............................................19:2,52
Wittershagen, Lars..............................19:2,53;19:3,33
Wittkop, Tim ....................................................19:1,55

Wolff, Susanne .................................................19:3,25

Wollenberger, Thomas .....................................19:3,16
Woodward, Kirsty ............................................19:1,28
Woods, Sarah .....................................................19:1,8
Woolf, Virginia
The Waves................................................19:1,7,34
Wooster Group, New York...............................19:3,58
Wright, Nicholas
Vincent in Brixton.........................................19:1,5
Young, John .....................................................19:3,58
Yukiza Puppet Theatre, Japan ....................19:3,19-20
Zadek, Peter .....................................................19:3,41
Zahmani, Abbes ...............................................19:3,66
Zarzoso, Paco
Arbuscht ........................................19:2,47;19:3,53

58

Contributors
MARVIN CARLSON, Sidney C. Cohn Professor of Theatre at the City University of New York Graduate
Center, is the author of many articles on theatrical theory and European theatre history and dramatic literature.
He is the 1994 recipient of the George Jean Nathan Award for dramatic criticism and the 1999 recipient of the
American Society for Theatre Research Distinguished Scholar Award. His book The Haunted Stage: The
Theatre as Memory Machine, which came out from University of Michigan Press in 2001, received the
Callaway Prize. In 2005 he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Athens. His most recent book
is Speaking in Tongues (Michigan, 2006).

BARRY DANIELS is a retired Professor of Theatre History now living in France. He has written extensively
on the French Romantic theatre. His book Le Dcor de theatre lpoque romantique: catalogue raisonn des
dcors de la Comdie-Franaise, 17991848 was published by the National Library of France in 2003. In 2007
he co-curated the exposition Patriotes en scne! Le Thtre de la Rpublique, 17901799 for the Museum of
the French Revolution in Vizille. He co-authored the catalogue which was published by Artlys. He is currently
editing the stagehands notebook for the Comdie-Franaise from 1798 to 1825.

MARIA M. DELGADO is Professor of Theatre & Screen Arts at Queen Mary, University of London and coeditor of Contemporary Theatre Review. Her books include Other Spanish Theatres: Erasure and Inscription
on the Twentieth Century Spanish Stage (2003), three co-edited volumes for Manchester University Press, and
two collections of translations for Methuen. Her study of Federico Garca Lorcas theatre has just been published by Routledge.

GENIA ENZELBERGER studied theatre at the University of Vienna. From 200405 she was an assistant at the
National Academy of Building Arts Stuttgart in the master class of Martin Zehetgruber. Since March 2007 she
has been an assistant at the Institute of Theatre, Film, and Media Studies at the University of Vienna. During
her studies she worked as assistant for several stage managers like Johann Kresnik and Martin Kusj. As free
dramatic advisor she had engagements at the Burgtheater, Thalia Theater Hamburg, Dietheater Vienna,
Ensembletheater Vienna, and Hamburg Kampnagel.

WILLIAM GRANGE is Hixson-Lied Professor of Theatre Studies at the University of Nebraska. His forthcoming volume Cultural Chronicle of the Weimar Republic will be published in the fall.

PHYLLIS ZATLIN is a professor of Spanish and coordinator of translator/interpreter training at Rutgers, the
State University of New Jersey. She served as Associate Editor of Estreo from 19922001 and as editor of the
translation series ESTREO Plays from 19982005. Her translations that have been published and/or staged
include plays by J.L. Alonso de Santos, Jean-Paul Daumas, Eduardo Manet, Paloma Pedrero, and Jaime Salom.
Her most recent book is Theatrical Translation and Film Adaptation: A Practitioners View.

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