Today I have had two of the most amazing theatrical experiences of my life!
The first was a three hour marathon walk around Köln visiting a school gym, several apartments, a shop, an office and, finally, a boat. At each location we met characters telling their story, all of which were interlinked and related the story of Kölners in the 20th Century. Called KURZ NACHDEM ICH TOT WAR it was a superb piece of theatre that – literally – could not be told anywhere else. Tomorrow I’m meeting its director (Jörg Lukas Matthaei) to find out how they pieced it all together and see whether we could do something similar in Birmingham. I was so caught up in the work that at one moment I found myself being interviewed for the Hitler Youth (and being accepted which was worrying) and then discussing Communist propaganda in a shadowy back street with a man in a trenchcoat. During the latter experience I’m sure I could hear the theme from The Third Man playing somewhere. The iPod audio in German was somewhat lost on me, but the actors all worked so well in English once they knew language-poor me was there.
Then tonight I trudged across town for KAMP. With no words, but the most amazing sound track, three talented Dutch folk use puppets and models to tell tales from Auschwitz. It’s the first time I’ve ever experienced that rarest of beasts – an audience that just sat in silence for a few minutes at the end totally absorbed, totally affected. Experiencing this piece with a mostly German audience was one of the most profound experiences I can think of and the chance to chat to some of them afterwards was especially poignant.
Well, I think I deserve tonight’s large G&T at the hotel bar. After that off to bed.
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