Blättern im Holz

* from the script *

background and process with improvisation, sound and movement

A scenario developed in the preparation phase, for which material was selected and whose process is designed as an improvisation, provides the structure that is to guide the musicians and me. The movements and the visualisation of postures are formed from the handling of the material and become dance in the flow of movement. The finely differentiated to archaically explosive sounds of the musicians also arise from the momentary situation. These improvisations condense in the stage light into moving images and dissolve again and again into the unexpected. In the black theatre space, they become a performance stage piece.

The 'black box' sets the tone; so the musicians are partly dressed in black and I am entirely dressed in black. We enter the stage space one after the other from different sides, I carry an armful of branches and a top hat on my head. I move through the stage space, playing with the balance of the loosely held branches. They gradually fall out of my arms, tangling into a loose pile of branches that I pull and push across the floor. The branches become the stage set, they are repeatedly rearranged during the performance, deliberately lined up vertically in front of the black theatre curtains, which emphasises their insect-like effect; then they are changed again in the context of the movement improvisation, shifted, taken in the hands, held and swung. Since the beginning of the performance, two galvanised handholds, a pair of black socks that I will later put over my shoes, and white paper rolled up and wrapped in string have been attached to my body. The paper roll comes loose very early and the individual sheets fall down. Later I put the handholds on the floor and try to balance on them; in the process I find specific poses which I hold until the next shift in balance, which in turn leads into another pose. Then I lift the top hat very slowly; piled up, freshly picked, green plant leaves become visible on my head. They sail to the floor, their green glowing poisonously in the stage light.

In the epilogue, the white leaves come into play, each with a letter written on it. I hold up one leaf after the other before dropping it again. Read together they form the sentence «BLÄTTERN IM HOLZ» (turning 'leaves' in the wood). With my feet I push the letters together to form new words such as «ATOM HERZEN IM MAERZ ... TOMATEN IM MAI ... ENTE» (which translated reads as 'atom hearts in march' ... 'tomatoes in may' ... 'duck').

script