Beware of Pity

The most interesting part of this evening in the theatre was the question and answer session afterwards with the German cast and crew, who gave an insight into an extraordinary different way of creating theatre.

The ensemble cast began with a novel and over a period of ten weeks – scene by scene – line by line - they put together this production. The director and his team of video and sound engineers plus the whole set of creatives were in the sandpit of the Berlin theatre for the whole period. How brave to commence a rehearsal process without a script or production plan?

Watching the production itself was more challenging than hearing the creatives speak about it.

It is the type of play which requires a bit of homework before you enter the theatre to get the most out of it. The German language was translated on screens awkwardly at the side of the backstage. Reading the English, then switching your vision back to the movement on the stage led to moments of audience disorientation.

The play begins with the striking image of the uniform of the assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, whose death sparked World War One. Into the same glass display case which held the bloodied uniform slips the leading man Hofmiller – a young soldier.

Next he is in a castle, invited to a soiree, where he asks the host’s daughter for a dance. His tortured relationship with her and his reaction to her disability forms the meat of the drama.

There are brilliant images flashed onto the backdrop in the midst of a swirling landscape that descends into chaos.

It was a fascinating insight into an intense type of theatre we don’t see locally, but at two hours without interval was at times – hard work.

David Spicer

Photographer: Jamie Williams.