Medienspiegel 2008

"Democracy": You should know this face 

Ort: Toronto
Ereignis: Das Tarragon Theatre zeigt die kanadische Premiere von Michael Frayns Erfolgsdrama "Democracy" über die Beziehung von Willy Brandt und Günter Guillaume. Unterstützt vom Goethe-Institut Toronto. Guillaume wird gespielt von Alon Nashman, mit dem das GI Toronto bereits mehrfach zusammen gearbeitet hat.


If you know the name Alon Nashman but can't pinpoint who he is or what he looks like, don't feel too bad. You're well on your way to understanding this most chameleon of Toronto stage actors.

For now, Nashman's interest is focused on all things German circa the 1970s to prepare for Democracy. He is playing Gunter Guillaume, a spy who brought down the government of Willy Brandt in what was then West Germany. The character is both a key player in the political drama and the main narrator and guide for the audience. It will require all the shape-shifting and blending skills that only an actor such as Nashman can muster. It should be old hat to him, but he is still in that nervous-excited stage of previews.

"It's one of the toughest roles I've ever done," he says. "I'm functioning in two worlds throughout the play. I'm always in two scenes at once."

The native Torontonian has made a career of shape-shifting his way from one production to the next. Who but Nashman can claim to have played Albert Einstein (Picasso at the Lapin Agile), Franz Kafka (Kafka and Son) and Tom Cruise (Hotel Loopy)?

Ethnically, the "very out Jew" blends into every race and creed on this planet. He was Irish in Restitution, Lebanese in Wedding Day at the Cro-Magnons and all-American in Talley's Folly. His next two engagements at the Tarragon Theatre reincarnate him as an East German spy in Michael Frayn's Democracy (which opens tonight) to be followed next month by a stint as a French vagrant in New York in Brendan Gall's Alias Godot.

(…) For now, Nashman's interest is focused on all things German circa the 1970s to prepare for Democracy. He is playing Gunter Guillaume, a spy who brought down the government of Willy Brandt in what was then West Germany. The character is both a key player in the political drama and the main narrator and guide for the audience. It will require all the shape-shifting and blending skills that only an actor such as Nashman can muster. It should be old hat to him, but he is still in that nervous-excited stage of previews.

"It's one of the toughest roles I've ever done," he says. "I'm functioning in two worlds throughout the play. I'm always in two scenes at once."
von Kamal al-Solaylee, Globe and Mail, 5. März 2008

Kontakt

Goethe-Institut Toronto
100 University Ave., North Tower,
Suite 201, mailbox #136
Toronto, Ontario, M5J 1V6
Kanada
Tel. +1 416 5935257
Fax +1 416 5935145
info@toronto.goethe.org
www.goethe.de/toronto
Anfahrt

Goethe-Institut Kanada

Erfahren Sie mehr über die Aktivitäten des Goethe-Instituts in Kanada.

Weblog: German Film @ Canada

Folgen Sie unseren Festival- neuigkeiten, Berichten und Hintergrund- stories zum aktuellen deutschen Film.

Weblog: Goethe Satellite Vancouver

Deutsche und kanadische Künstler und Kuratoren im Goethe Satellite Vancouver halten Sie auf dem Laufenden über ihre künstlerischen Brückenprojekte an der kanadischen Westküste.

Rorys Berlin Blog

Vancouveraner Rory MacLean berichtet aus Berlin.

Facebook

Besuchen Sie uns auf Facebook

Twitter

Folgen Sie uns
auf Twitter

YouTube

Besuchen Sie uns auf YouTube