FESTIVAL_I Think, Life Is A Lot Simpler Than That

Maulwerker (Germany)

Rūtos salė

Maulwerker (Berlin, Germany)

“I Think, Life Is A Lot Simpler Than That”

Music and theatre performance

Running time: 85 min.
Audience age recommendation: From +14 years.

Location: The Ruta Hall

“I Think, Life Is A Lot Simpler Than That.” is a new collective composition by the group Maulwerker, formed out of audiovisual compositions for bodies, voices, objects, and video. Starting with the tableau vivant Fountain by Steffi Weismann in front of the theatre, it continues in the hall as a suite of the pieces TAKT SINN [Sense of Tact] by Fernanda Farah, Intérieur à 1 [Interior for 1] by Michael Hirsch, Nycticebus coucang by Ariane Jessulat, Song of Uncertain Length by Emmett Williams, Drip Music by George Brecht, Solo for Sick Man by George Maciunas, Bauernszene [Peasant Scene] by Dieter Schnebel, Manodharma with Mr. Y by Takehisa Kosugi, Give Paw! by Neo Hülcker, d!ssoc!at!on_study_2 by Jule Flierl, Poem für 1 Springer [Poem for 1 Jumping Person] by Dieter Schnebel, and Eiszeit [Ice Age] by Katarina Rasinski. Some of the pieces appear in fragments throughout the evening. Some new works are created to be a bridge between the pieces, motives are picked up and repeated. Some works are performed simultaneously to create a spatial experience and a different sense of time.

Maulwerker give a sense of what it’s like to be human, and how that sounds. You see humans trying to be animals, humans trying to be a glacier, but mostly humans being humans, or at least trying to be.

Maulwerker [Mouth Workers] from Berlin are known as pioneers for their experimental music theatre, combining vocal performance and actions with everyday objects, integrating elements from performance art and contemporary choreography.

In the context of the Berlin scene, the group Maulwerker stands for its own style of performing, named after a series of compositions by Dieter Schnebel, who is one of the important initiators of a new music theater in the German-speaking world. The collective pursues a vocal practice that explores the entire range of the human vocal apparatus from diaphragm to skullcap, from singing to breathing. Interpreted in the 1970s against the backdrop of sexual liberation, this strong physical focus is now interpreted in more analytical terms. Different kinds of breathing, for example - Dieter Schnebel himself already pointed this out - can be associated with different states or feelings, for example fast breathing with effort or fear. While in theater these techniques are used to portray those very feelings, music theater tends to dispense with attributions of meaning and devotes itself to more abstract relationships of the material.

Appropriately for the time of throat swabs, the title of the Maulwerker's latest concert evening, which premiered at Ballhaus Ost at the end of October, was "Die Rache," consisting of "three positions of performative sound art - at the interface of composed music and sound art." Of course, throats, oral cavities and other acoustic spaces were the focus here. In addition, Serge Baghdassarian's and Boris Baltschun's "unpacking / unboxing" was an extension of the human voice and dealt with the digitalized and automated voices that have become so commonplace today. Theater der Zeit [Theater of Time], March 2021

Starring: Ariane Jessulat, Henrik Kairies, Christian Kesten, Katarina Rasinski, Steffi Weismann and Vilém Wagner.

Compositions by Fernanda Farah, Jule Flierl, Michael Hirsch, Neo Hülcker, Ariane Jessulat, Takehisa Kosugi, George Maciunas, Katarina Rasinski, Dieter Schnebel, Steffi Weismann, Emmett Williams.

Artistic direction: Christian Kesten.

Technical direction: Steffi Weismann.

Production management: Vilém Wagner.