Some initial thoughts on Reise, Reiser

First up, Reise, Resier. A wonderful experience. I say experience rather than play, because I could not understand a more than a few words (and even saying a few could be considered a gross exaggeration), therefore I can't speak to what the play actually "says", but I can speak to what I saw, felt and heard. Although I couldn't literally understand any of what was being said, I still felt as though I was absorbing what was behind the words; the themes and emotions of the piece, which I consider to me more important anyway. I must admit that this was due entirely to the wonderful work of the actors, especially the lead. The man commanded the room and our attention. He played wonderfully off of the audience in the purest sense, as he literally had exchanges with non-German speaking Allegra in the front row. The piece felt dangerous, original, and young. Angry garage theatre done at it's absolute best, what Off Off Broadway could only hope to be in some of it's wildest dreams (if it could only get out of it's own way). It felt as if we were watching a critique of the decomposition of culture, Theatre Arts in particular, throughout Germany, but especially Berlin. My reasoning for that being his use of the Berlin model at the top of the play and of course his "use" of other theaters program bills... Props to this guy for going through all of the programs of theaters we have yet to see, and bashing them as theatrical rubbish, which we were only to lucky to find out for ourselves in some cases (be patient my little lieblings, we'll get to that later). Watching this man's beautiful song in drag was a stunning moment, both aesthetically and thematically (or at least in the case of the latter it felt that way). His outfit: a cheap faded pink dress with sequins that didn't seem to shine as much as they once did, and the mascara tears which ran down his face, all helped to project a sense of loss or longing. There was something being lamented here, something that had once been celebrated but was now is just unimportant. Once again, this is only my feeling about, and may actually go completely against what the play actually was about. The use of the space interesting. I say interesting because I don't exactly know what to make of it. The space being used up front made sense to me, but all the action done completely upstage with projection and shadow was lost behind the large wall mount. Was that purposefully done, or something they had to do due to spacial confinement (hard to believe as the space was huge). All in all, I was very happy that this was our first show, and that didn't understand a word.

Next up: Die Moritat Von Robert Wilson err... I mean Mackie Messer. Tune in next blog kids. Same Bat Blog. Same Bat Place.