Don’t Go Around the Mountain: A Visit from Swiss Playwright Lukas Bärfuss
Place: Toronto
Event: Goethe-Institut theatre program with Swiss dramatist Lukas Bärfuss, in cooperation with Playwrights Guild of Canada, Theatre Smash, Swiss Consulate General
On Monday, October 2nd, 2006, the Goethe-Institut Toronto and Theatre Smash presented a reading of The Bus by Swiss playwright Lukas Bärfuss. In 2005, The Bus was named the best German-language play at the Mülheim Theatre Festival, winning both the jury and the audience awards. That same year, Bärfuss was named playwright of the year by the specialty magazine Theater Heute. Born in Thun, Switzerland in 1971, Bärfuss now lives in Zurich where he works as a playwright and novelist. His latest plays include Alice’s Journey to Switzerland (2005), an adaptation of Henry IV (2004), The Sexual Neuroses of Our Parents (2003), Four Scenes of Love (2002), an adaptation of Othello (2001), Meienberg’s Death (2001), and Klaus and Edith’s Journey Through the Shaft into the Centre of the Earth (2001). These works have been produced around the world, including Scandinavia, South America, Greece, Hungary, Russia, Poland, Czech Republic and Israel.
The Goethe-Institut Toronto and Theatre Smash’s presentation of The Bus was the Canadian premiere of Bärfuss’ work; the translation by Toronto actor and translator Judith Orban, commissioned by the Goethe-Institut, was the first English rendition of the play. The project was part of the International Theatre Institute’s 3rd International Platform for Contemporary Theatre, a program which involves events and workshops in Germany, Canada, and the Netherlands. As a series of projects with partners worldwide – the Canadian partners being the Goethe-Institut, Theatre Smash, the Playwrights Guild of Canada and the Swiss Consulate General – the Platform initiates workshops with authors, translators and directors as well as readings, premieres and performances abroad. The Goethe-Institut and Theatre Smash, the reading’s two presenting partners, joined forces for this series because both are strongly invested in presenting international contemporary theatre to Toronto audiences. The Goethe-Institut is the largest organization promoting German culture abroad, encouraging and supporting artistic collaboration across the globe with 144 cultural institutions in 77 countries. The Goethe-Institut Toronto maintains an ongoing dialogue on current cultural issues with local arts organizations and partners and develops challenging cultural programs in the areas of theatre, dance, literature, film, new music, visual arts, design, architecture and others.
Theatre Smash develops and produces contemporary theatrical work with a global twist. A driving force behind Theatre Smash is to bring new influences to our national theatre. While we develop new scripts with Canadian playwrights, part of our mandate also includes presenting Canadian premieres of contemporary international work – our inaugural production, the North American premiere of Welsh playwright Abi Morgan’s play Tiny Dynamite just finished a successful run at Tarragon Theatre’s Extra Space. We want to create work that challenges our audiences and expands our experience as practitioners, a desire which is partly fulfilled by looking outside our borders and welcoming influences from around the world. We believe that investigating foreign writers’ work will not dilute, but will strengthen Canadian theatre; our work will become increasingly diverse, aware and informed.
Upon reading The Bus, we knew immediately that Theatre Smash should produce it; through sharply drawn characters and startling humour, Bärfuss examines the meanings of belief and faith in the modern world. For three days we worked with a fantastic cast, (Gord Bolan, Juan Chioran, Jacklyn Francis, John Gilbert, Anne Hardcastle, Thomas Hauff and Ieva Lucs) investigating the piece. Although the play is ostensibly narrative in form, we quickly discovered that we could not approach the text in a naturalistic manner. We could not link the characters’ actions by motivation and desire, but instead needed to look at each action as a singular moment in time, each with its own rules.
Later, through discussions with Lukas and by attending his workshop for Canadian theatre artists, Text and Theatre at the Goethe-Institut, I learnt his theory of action on stage: we should always ask “How?” and never ask “Why?”. To Lukas, “why” is a deadly word. As creators, and as an audience, we must accept the moment of reality that we are presented with. We must deal with the facts and not concern ourselves with creating illusion. In The Bus, for example, there is no bus, simply an audience witnessing actors on stage. Lukas believes that if theatre is truly good, there are no outsiders – just a community witnessing a moment of action. Actors should not concern themselves with why their characters make certain choices or have specific wants. Back stories are unimportant. Instead, by performing actions, the actors are creating their personality and their biography in the moment. The workshop’s participants found this way of working to be challenging and exciting, for as Lukas said, “You can’t go around the mountain, you have to cross it.”
Through working on an international text, and by being offered the opportunity to discuss the work directly with the writer, participants in both The Bus reading and Lukas’ text workshop, found that their theatre-creation methods were expanded and developed. At Theatre Smash, we hope to participate in more such workshops in the future, with both international and Canadian playwrights. Thanks to partners such as the Playwrights Guild of Canada and the Goethe-Institut, we hope to continue to create opportunities for dialogues between Canadian and international theatre artists in the future.
Event: Goethe-Institut theatre program with Swiss dramatist Lukas Bärfuss, in cooperation with Playwrights Guild of Canada, Theatre Smash, Swiss Consulate General
On Monday, October 2nd, 2006, the Goethe-Institut Toronto and Theatre Smash presented a reading of The Bus by Swiss playwright Lukas Bärfuss. In 2005, The Bus was named the best German-language play at the Mülheim Theatre Festival, winning both the jury and the audience awards. That same year, Bärfuss was named playwright of the year by the specialty magazine Theater Heute. Born in Thun, Switzerland in 1971, Bärfuss now lives in Zurich where he works as a playwright and novelist. His latest plays include Alice’s Journey to Switzerland (2005), an adaptation of Henry IV (2004), The Sexual Neuroses of Our Parents (2003), Four Scenes of Love (2002), an adaptation of Othello (2001), Meienberg’s Death (2001), and Klaus and Edith’s Journey Through the Shaft into the Centre of the Earth (2001). These works have been produced around the world, including Scandinavia, South America, Greece, Hungary, Russia, Poland, Czech Republic and Israel.
The Goethe-Institut Toronto and Theatre Smash’s presentation of The Bus was the Canadian premiere of Bärfuss’ work; the translation by Toronto actor and translator Judith Orban, commissioned by the Goethe-Institut, was the first English rendition of the play. The project was part of the International Theatre Institute’s 3rd International Platform for Contemporary Theatre, a program which involves events and workshops in Germany, Canada, and the Netherlands. As a series of projects with partners worldwide – the Canadian partners being the Goethe-Institut, Theatre Smash, the Playwrights Guild of Canada and the Swiss Consulate General – the Platform initiates workshops with authors, translators and directors as well as readings, premieres and performances abroad. The Goethe-Institut and Theatre Smash, the reading’s two presenting partners, joined forces for this series because both are strongly invested in presenting international contemporary theatre to Toronto audiences. The Goethe-Institut is the largest organization promoting German culture abroad, encouraging and supporting artistic collaboration across the globe with 144 cultural institutions in 77 countries. The Goethe-Institut Toronto maintains an ongoing dialogue on current cultural issues with local arts organizations and partners and develops challenging cultural programs in the areas of theatre, dance, literature, film, new music, visual arts, design, architecture and others.
Theatre Smash develops and produces contemporary theatrical work with a global twist. A driving force behind Theatre Smash is to bring new influences to our national theatre. While we develop new scripts with Canadian playwrights, part of our mandate also includes presenting Canadian premieres of contemporary international work – our inaugural production, the North American premiere of Welsh playwright Abi Morgan’s play Tiny Dynamite just finished a successful run at Tarragon Theatre’s Extra Space. We want to create work that challenges our audiences and expands our experience as practitioners, a desire which is partly fulfilled by looking outside our borders and welcoming influences from around the world. We believe that investigating foreign writers’ work will not dilute, but will strengthen Canadian theatre; our work will become increasingly diverse, aware and informed.
Upon reading The Bus, we knew immediately that Theatre Smash should produce it; through sharply drawn characters and startling humour, Bärfuss examines the meanings of belief and faith in the modern world. For three days we worked with a fantastic cast, (Gord Bolan, Juan Chioran, Jacklyn Francis, John Gilbert, Anne Hardcastle, Thomas Hauff and Ieva Lucs) investigating the piece. Although the play is ostensibly narrative in form, we quickly discovered that we could not approach the text in a naturalistic manner. We could not link the characters’ actions by motivation and desire, but instead needed to look at each action as a singular moment in time, each with its own rules.
Later, through discussions with Lukas and by attending his workshop for Canadian theatre artists, Text and Theatre at the Goethe-Institut, I learnt his theory of action on stage: we should always ask “How?” and never ask “Why?”. To Lukas, “why” is a deadly word. As creators, and as an audience, we must accept the moment of reality that we are presented with. We must deal with the facts and not concern ourselves with creating illusion. In The Bus, for example, there is no bus, simply an audience witnessing actors on stage. Lukas believes that if theatre is truly good, there are no outsiders – just a community witnessing a moment of action. Actors should not concern themselves with why their characters make certain choices or have specific wants. Back stories are unimportant. Instead, by performing actions, the actors are creating their personality and their biography in the moment. The workshop’s participants found this way of working to be challenging and exciting, for as Lukas said, “You can’t go around the mountain, you have to cross it.”
Through working on an international text, and by being offered the opportunity to discuss the work directly with the writer, participants in both The Bus reading and Lukas’ text workshop, found that their theatre-creation methods were expanded and developed. At Theatre Smash, we hope to participate in more such workshops in the future, with both international and Canadian playwrights. Thanks to partners such as the Playwrights Guild of Canada and the Goethe-Institut, we hope to continue to create opportunities for dialogues between Canadian and international theatre artists in the future.
by Ashlie Corcoran, CanPlay, Fall 2006
