Ruhrtriennale 2024: Sandra Hülser threw herself in the trash and blew a gun

2024-08-21 09:09:53

How do you bring the really big issues to the stage today – the horrors of war and state violence? In Bochum, Sandra Hülser sings the songs of an icon. In Duisburg, Kirill Serebrennikov remembers a Russian story. It’s rarely embarrassing, but unfortunately sometimes it is.

Ivo van Hove, the new director of the Ruhrtriennale, wants to expand the concept of musical theatre. This is what he announced for the first edition of the festival under the theme “Longing for Tomorrow”. With the change to music, fresh air is blowing through the disused mines and converted factories between Duisburg and Bochum, which have been operating since 2002. Ruhrtriennale be happy While her predecessor Barbara Frey opened with Shakespeare’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream” last year, the Belgian will appear in Bochum’s Jahrhunderthalle with Sandra Hülser – as singer.

Hülser, who became an international star with the films “Anatomy of a Case” and “Area of ​​Interest” and can currently be seen in the comedy “Two to One”, threw himself into the dust during his appearance: the stage was covered. is covered with dirt, which is still a little watery. Hope should grow from the dark ground, like the small trees that are twisted to describe. PJ Harvey’s lyrics are also about this, alternating between condemnation of the world and rebellion (“crazy this world, gimme the gun”). Beauty is a delicate plant amidst the jungle of violence and scorn.

“I Want Perfect Beauty” in the name of the evening, consisting of 26 songs of PJ Harvey on parade, which Hülser wrote in such a way that the audience had no time to breathe. How Hülser manages this is a mystery, as he still crawls across the stage or is fanned by dancers from (La) Horde from Marseille. The harsh lyrical beauty seems tailor-made for Hülser’s voice, whose bright anger brings to mind ancient mourners or avenging goddesses. In Bochum people have long been aware of the actor’s musical abilities, which he already demonstrated in “Der Würgeengel” in the local theater. Psalms and pop songs” shows.

It follows Hülser and Harvey from song to song into a world of love stories and tragic poetry. A world of wars and violence that undermines trust in humanity. It’s just silly that the guide is based on simple descriptions: when you come to the battle as a slaughterhouse, you won’t see it burn, but also, with additional clips, on the mega screen filled all sizes of suits. Where, free from play and comedy, the sensory levels stay together so indifferently, you feel overwhelmed – and only the music seems to know the volume control up to full volume without any nuances.

Like a gypsy

At the end of this evening, which put beauty in great distress with its intrusive need for mission, he looked at the sea from a bird’s eye view: “We float, take life as it comes,” he forced the Buddhist-like . insight, the only wave of those to be a great big event. Despite such illusions, the conference was able to receive a large round of applause, which Hülser, who bravely fought against the simplicity of the imagination, at least deserved. And by the way: Where Harvey dances “like a gypsy”, the English and German languages ​​simply leave a gap. Are you sensitive to discrimination?

Despite its stellar cast, “I Want Absolute Beauty” wasn’t the highlight of the opening weekend, either “Legend” by Kirill Serebrennikov. The Russian director, who was invited to the Cannes Film Festival this year with “Limonov,” paid tribute to the Soviet filmmaker Sergei Parajanov with his four-hour musical ensemble. A crazy project involving artists from the Serebrennikov company and the Hamburg Thalia Theater – and the men’s choir of the Trinity Cathedral from Tbilisi, Georgia.

“Legend” is a great and amazing spectacle that is always amazing with amazing images – and for the long running time, it shows some lengths and musical weaknesses towards the end. However, these are forgivable in view of the many goosebump moments that are close to the kitsch border but impressive. Serebrennikov interweaves the life and work of Parajanov. It draws – mainly in fancy clothes and in some scenes – from more famous films like “Shadows of the Forgotten Fathers” (1965), “The Color of Pomegranate” (1969) or “The Legend of Suram Fortress” (1985) ).

Serebrennikov succeeded in taking the viewer in the best way – into the world of submission of the paintings of Parajanov, who was born in 1924 in what is now Georgia and died in 1990, and who was loved by filmmakers such as Godard , Fellini and Antonioni. At the same time, the filmmaker’s eccentric life serves as a foil for Serebrennikov’s main theme: The struggle for beauty in the conflict between the artist and the state. For Serebrennikov himself, it was a life-long affair: once promoted as a proof of Russian cultural renewal, he came under the wheels of a power struggle within the machine. Serebrennikov was caught, accused and convicted.

Parajanov was arrested and charged with homosexuality in the Soviet Union; But one also knows how to decorate the poles with the fruits of the imagination, as he says systematically in one place in “Legend”. It is a system of a poetic power that sees itself as an opposition to the idea of ​​human control of the state, which – not without romantic ambiguities – constructs the artist as a genius and outsider. The note “All Political Prisoners Free” shown at the very end is not really needed anymore.

Those who have a rough structure of the evening have provided about ten chapters and ten legends. These include one about the poet Walt Whitman and a “King Lear” scene in which an elderly captain in diapers stands in a storm with a cursing fool at his side. And another number stood there, blind people. With empty eyes and a mouth sewn like the Russian performance artist Pyotr Pavlensky in 2012, it is a creature of sadness wrapped in black paper. What is left? It is just the shape of a human being, an empty shell that is quickly discarded.

With this production, Serebrennikov, responsible for the direction, stage and costumes, showed his talent as a hybrid image producer who is not above pulling great stunts. “It doesn’t work without pathos,” he says at one point, representative of the whole thing. “I Want Perfect Beauty” could be an alternative title here. However, this also involves a concert by a Georgian singer involved in “Legend”, which entertains the audience with traditional songs and modern polyphonic songs in a former turbine hall.

With the fight for beauty, the Ruhrtriennale – in addition to music as a central medium – now also seems to have found its theme, which opens in “Legend” in a visually powerful way. The festival runs until mid-October. Isabelle Huppert’s appearance in “Bérénice” is expected to be another highlight.

Jakob Hayner spent half his life in the theater. In 2020 he published the book “Why Theatre. Crisis and renewal,” he has been writing for WELT since 2022. You can read his words here.