Another young German director, Elsa-Sophie Jach, tries something like a feminist version of “Dionysos Stadt” with “The Outrageous Ones: T...
Another young German director, Elsa-Sophie Jach, tries something like a feminist version of “Dionysos Stadt” with “The Outrageous Ones: Technoid Love Letters for Ancient Heroines”, at the Residenztheater in Munich. With its long narrations, installation-like setting, and percussive live music, there’s a lot about the production that resembles Rüping’s work.
In the intimacy of the Marstall, a small stage of the Residenztheater in the former imperial stables, six actresses frolic around a bright pink fountain telling the myths of Echo, Medusa, Cassandra, Medea, Philomela and Penelope – among the best of antiquity – known and bloodiest. Murder, sexual violence and wanton cruelty abound in these stories, often told in the first person, of women suffering at the hands of gods and men. (The text performed is itself a patchwork of ancient and modern texts, from Homer, Aeschylus, Euripides and Sappho to modern feminist authors, including Christa Wolf and Hélène Cixous.)
Although these stories are well known, the actresses manage to make us feel discomfort and rage at the sickening violence that is done against women time and time again. By giving voice to aggrieved or misunderstood female figures, “The Outrageous Ones” glues it to the patriarchy, represented by Zeus, Poseidon and Apollo.
It’s a stylish and assured production. Onstage band Slatec help channel female fury with their dynamic improvisations. The eclectic quartet – two sets of percussion, synthesizers and a trombone – perform what could best be described as the meeting of techno and big band.
The musicians drive the evening with momentum and energy, while the band’s colorful outfits contrast with the dark black worn by the actresses for most of the performance – much like the blood that spurts from the fountain per gallon towards the end of the performance. evening. Playful decor by Aleksandra Pavlovic and striking, dramatic lighting by Barbara Westernach help transform the Marstall’s small brick interior into a wacky nightclub with a haunted house vibe.
However, as the performance draws to a close, it tends towards relevance by including the real story of Nevin Yildirim, a woman who in 2015 was sentenced to life imprisonment in Turkey for killing a man who raped her. Jach’s decision to add Yildirim to the pantheon of cruelly abused queens, princesses, and nymphs seems misplaced. Such editorialization seems biased, as if Jach and his performers lack faith in their classic material. Prior to this modern interpolation, however, the production speaks for the silent women of antiquity in sensitive, eloquent, and artistically unexpected ways.
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