|
"For quarter of a century Free Theatre has refined cultural
horizons and shaped Christchurch's perceptions of contemporary theatre"
- The Press, 21 May 2008 |
|
|
"For quarter of a century Free Theatre has refined cultural
horizons and shaped Christchurch's perceptions of contemporary theatre"
- The Press, 21 May 2008 |
|
Free Theatre Chch
PO Box 2736
Christchurch 8015
Ph: (03) 364 2987 ext.7934
(021) 0256 1384
admin
@freetheatre.org.nz
SIGN UP TO OUR (e)MAILING LIST
Visit us on Facebook
Check out our YouTube Channel
|
Winner, Best Theatre, Dunedin Fringe Festival, April 2008
Nominated, Best Production Design, Dunedin Fringe Festival, April 2008
Winner, Best Production Design, Wellington Fringe Festival, February 2009
|
Director |
Peter Falkenberg |
SYNOPSIS:
Goethe's Faust is to Germany what Shakespeare's Hamlet is to the English-speaking world: the greatest play, by the greatest author, creating the greatest national role. Faust is the prototype German character, always striving, never satisfied, who gets seduced into a pact with the devil.
Gustav Gründgens is widely considered the best German actor of all time. He is most famous for playing the role of the devil (Mephistopheles) in productions of Faust that he himself directed. Though he played Mephistopheles, the real-life figure Gründgens had perhaps more in common with Faust, having himself made a pact with the Nazis. Hermann Göring, the designated successor of Hitler, appointed Gründgens as head of all the state-run theatres in the Reich.
In the early '60s, Gründgens decided to quit acting and instead "live real life" by travelling the world. His first trip was to Manila, Philippines, where he died suddenly in his hotel room. Suicide was suspected.
Faust Chroma begins in Manila, 1963, where Gründgens' fever hallucinations and drug-induced rants awaken scenes from both his theatrical productions and his life.
We see a pre-Nazi cabaret party where Gründgens performs with the daughter and son of author Thomas Mann: one became his wife, the other his lover. We see his early encounters with the Nazis, with Gründgens forced to defend his sexuality and later forced to remarry. We see fantasy scenes from the theatre, love scenes with the wife of Hermann Göring, and Hitler as an admiring audience member.
Theatre and life are mixed up throughout: Gründgens played roles in both. For Gründgens, it seems, a decision to quit acting was a decision to quit living as well.
Note: complete reviews of Faust Chroma can be found just below.
SELECTED PRAISE FOR FAUST CHROMA:
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: My wife and I happened to be in Christchurch, when 'The Free Theatre' showed their performance of Werner Fritsch's plays. We
went very sceptically. The plays are concerned with a not so pleasant part of German history. Nazism and especially the crooked figures of Hermann and
Emmy Goering on the one hand and the complicated and very German connection between Gustav Grundgens, the myth of Faust on the other. And two of his
extremely complex plays to be performed more or less one right after the other. We came back convinced and overwhelmed. Not only was there a congenial
translation or rather transformation into English, great directing, but there was a quality of acting, a total dedication to the plays, an identification
of the actors and actresses with a highly sophisticated web of content and language which left us speechless. In all respects the performances were
on level with the ones we saw in Berlin some years ago, both of them at professional theatres. Absolutely first class and the aura which the play
seeks to evoke was right there, 20,000 km's away from Berlin. Incredible work! If this sounds overexcited, we were that, and still are.
Henner Loeffler, Ph.D,
Rautenstrauch 80
50935 Koeln
Germany
hennerloeffler@mac.com
When you are in the company of Free Theatre performers, you experience the cohesion, exploration and manifestation of dedicated ensemble work. Free
Theatre's interpretation of this classic piece is richly textured with the language of theatre in spades. Exquisitely expressive and physical Faust Chroma
is masterly rendered to comment on the perennial issue of excess power without conscience. Deservedly the winners of the Best Theatre award at the recent
Dunedin Fringe Festival, along with Nominee for Best Production Design.
Karin Reid
Festival Coordinator & Artist Liaison, Dunedin Fringe Festival
"I'm encouraging people to go along because it stimulates and entertains; because it's sensual, relevant and rich; because it's damn good theatre."
- Creon Upton, publicaddress.net
"There is only one thing left to say, really, and that is: if you ever get the chance to see Free Theatre, grab it without hesitation. They produce theatre
the way it should be and you will not be disappointed."
- Neal Barber, The Critic
"Faust Chroma is a sometimes haunting and bleak but also erotic and insightful exploration of guilt, evil, repression, and the importance of art."
- Berenike, CANTA
"...words are merely one part of this sensual and dynamic production that skilfully interweaves elements of song, nonverbal sound, film and music with
movement, gesture, mimicry and dance to create an exciting, pulsating theatrical event."
- Jared Wells, Presto
"Visually the production is startling, making full use of high platforms to create multiple playing areas. Footage of Grundgens' film role, projected
on to transparent gauze curtaining the dying man's bed, gives us frightening double images - huge faces mouthing over reduced human forms. The characters
in Grundgens' world are chameleon creatures, often human puppets, in a dark landscape of the mind."
- Lindsay Clark, Theatreview
DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT:
Faust Chroma is part of an ongoing inquiry by Free Theatre Christchurch into the nature of acting. Why do we act, both in theatre and in life? This matter is explored not only in the content but also in the form of the performance, which juxtaposes different types of acting: exaggerated theatrical styles, moments of improvisation, "authentic" not-acting with self-written text, etc.
The starting point for this exploration is the figure of Gustav Gründgens, this very famous actor who decides not to act anymore, but to live, and who is dying in the attempt.
But what is living, then? Can one avoid acting, even in life? This question is connected with a comparison to the German fascist society through which Gründgens lived, in which politicians were for the first time consciously acquiring power through performance, where mass rallies, films, broadcasting and other live and media performances were at the centre of the political movement. Now, it's a matter of course that this - acting - is what politicians are expected to do.
So we ask ourselves: are we still able to live in an authentic manner? Are there any authentic voices or emotions out there? Are they even possible?
These questions are addressed even, or especially, through the notion of romantic love. It is revealing to put the Romanticism of Goethe, Schumann, and Schubert side by side with the Holocaust and ask "How do they go together?" The 19th century Austrian playwright Grillparzer suggested that sentimentality is just the other side of brutality.
Goethe's Faust sees theatre as a moral institution. Mephistopheles is the actor, who puts on disguises and engages in trickery. Faust is the authentic man, always searching for deeper meaning in life, who is seduced into a pact with the devil, into becoming an actor himself.
This production questions what sort of pact the actors have, or try to establish, with the audience. Do we try to seduce them into something? Like politicians do we try to change them, to manipulate their emotions and thoughts? Or, by questioning this process, do we make the audience aware that they are living the life of actors, playing certain roles that have been prescribed for them, such that their lives are not really theirs?
It's very important for me to stress the musicality of the performance. The whole show is a dance of death, a musical cabaret, with the piano centre stage. The importance of the piano is complementary to the questions we ask. The piano is a tool for the manipulation - it creates the mood - but it is also destructive of the moods. The piano as object and the music made with it are both deconstructed.
So the music is taking on songs from the '20s, old 19th Century German Romanticism, but also new compositions by our musician and set designer Chris Reddington. It is a collage of different styles, like the acting itself. The performance styles, as they're all set to music, are never realistic. I cast the pianist as God who's in control of the actors by his heavenly music, as they all come to life as marionettes, even though Mephisto thinks he is controlling them.
I had talked for some time with Bavarian playwright and filmmaker Werner Fritsch about a collaboration, as he has been interested in creating a new Faust. I chose his play Chroma as a starting text and had his permission to work with and change the text, translate, and rewrite as I saw fit. I also asked the actors to contribute their own responses to certain ideas, so most of the actors have their own voices in it. In the end, he's very satisfied with our version and even wants to have it published in that form, keeping all the additions that we made.
In his play text, Fritsch uses some of his filmic work as interludes, discrete scenes in their own right, but we put them over or under the live acting. The films work much like the music, they colour things, literally and emotionally. They enhance moods, but also undermine them.
We also added our own filmic scenes in which the actors "karaoke" video footage of the Faust film that Gründgens made himself. This karaoke poses the question of acting in a very direct way, by replaying a role that is already given - which again corresponds to the idea of actors as marionettes. This is how Goethe also planned his Faust. All the world's a stage, and people are just playing out the roles given to them by God. But when there's no God, we play out the roles given us by film and television and other popular models. We're all playing our lives or living our plays.
