“Einsiedeln World Theater” – a spectacle of conflicting emotions
Published: Tuesday, Jun 11th 2024, 16:30
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This year's "Einsiedler Welttheater" presents itself as a spectacle of conflicting emotions. 450 participants help Lukas Bärfuss' play to achieve pompous performances as well as intimate moments.
Two grandstands form a semi-circle and open up the audience's view to a wide circle, which is closed off by a wide staircase and the front of the monastery church. Two superstructures on the left and right extend the stage space with raised colonnades.
Director Livio Andreina and choreographer Graham Smith make use of this variable structure to create an opulent spectacle, which Bruno Amstad makes resound with many voices and Annamaria Glaudemans dresses in wonderful costumes.
The juggler of the world
However, the game begins in an intimate setting. The girl Emanuela rebels and takes control of the role play. The world then enters the stage with brass music in the form of a foolish juggler. She is followed by fantastically dressed-up wonders and plagues, transforming the square into a turbulent circus in which everyone plays their small or large roles with palpable conviction.
The "Einsiedler Welttheater" offers both gruesomely beautiful and aesthetically pompous effects. The polyphonic choir on the colonnades and the army of maltreated peasants create ornamental images that suddenly descend into chaos when the poor, dressed in rags, stream onto the stage from all sides.
Supported by magical lighting and fog effects, impressive images are created that stylize the power and powerlessness of the people. Livio Andreina and his team shy away from neither pomp nor pathos when the people pay homage to their queen and an army of red flags flutter in the wind.
Race of the generations
However, such marches are repeatedly countered by scenes of great intimacy, for example when the girl Emanuela hands over her role to the young woman Emanuela, who then hands it over to the mature woman. The fragility of what is happening then becomes palpable, which is also expressed in the fact that no one escapes this role play unscathed. As a queen, she killed her boyfriend; as a young woman, she deeply regrets him.
Lukas Bärfuss takes the vastness of the stage space into account linguistically by giving his dialogues a strongly declamatory character. This is reinforced in the play as the language is absorbed into the staging and the choral singing. The music begins to speak, the songs take over the message, the costumes and choreography carry it on. "Nid alli spilet bis zum Ändi", the author counters.
Everything continues
As powerfully beautiful and lively as this spectacle appears, it remains militant at its core. It offers a wealth of subtleties for the eyes and ears, but overall it ignites a powerful rebellious force. The latter naturally has a stronger effect in the play than in the text version, which tends to stimulate intellectual debate.
Here, as there, the world is ruled by this foolish juggler. After 100 minutes, she pauses for a moment and announces to Emanuela, who has become an old woman, that everything will go on without her. The world keeps turning. Everyone leaves, leaving behind the child who wants to play.*
*This text by Beat Mazenauer, Keystone-SDA, was realized with the help of the Gottlieb and Hans Vogt Foundation
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