Lovely to talk again! So after two and a half full days of non-stop travel we've been living it up, shopping, theatre-going and drinking in Berlin!
Last night we saw a soon-to-be member of our Transistor Collective theatre company, Florian, performing in his show, Die unheimliche Wiederkehr des Arthur Craven. (The Uncanny Return of Arthur Craven)
The show was almost entirely in German and was performed in an old cabaret hall with the audience space was encircled by market style stalls and a bar. Willem and I were talking after the show, he has also seen Florian in his Ernst Busch production of Troilus and Cressida, and something that stuck him is the precision Florian has been trained to have. The character was quite anarchic and shocking but the "sloppiness" was calculated and heavily crafted. We also talked to Florian, who had just finished the sixth season of this piece. He mentioned how the show was originally crafted for a smaller space. You know the townhall, Newtown? It was about that size, and I think the first few seasons were in spaces more like BATS or a Toi Whakaari studio. It felt like he was busting up against the distance created by the elevated stage. Arthur Craven would pound down the stairs to enter the audience space but it would feel contrived and unnatural, and it remained two separate spaces. There were great moments. The band members doubling as extras offered loads of chemistry. At one point they refused to play as Arthur Craven enters Barcelona. "Wo ist mein MARIACHI MUSIK?". This leads to discussions about the band not being paid and a discussion on what theatre is.
All in all a solid first Berlin theatre experience. Plus it was followed by a hip-hop / mask performance:
... one song was called, "Stop the music, and shit on the dance floor" and thats all I have to say about that.
Love you, Newtown.
Tom.
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