directed by Ukrainian director Natasha Syvanenko for the Schauspielhaus Graz
I’ve left this show I’ve seen at the Schauspielhaus Graz back in March as the last because it truly touched me and taught me some very important lessons. I have been involved with a lot of am-dram and community theatre in the UK and when I first read that this show is based on the personal stories of the fantastic non-actor performers, I was gobsmacked. The quality of acting was so good that for almost the entirety of the show I simply forgot that these performers have no professional acting background. There were no moments where I’d go ‘Oh well, they’re regular people who love acting in their spare time’; quite the opposite, I’d go: ‘My goodness are these regular people who act in their spare time?! Because it sure doesn’t feel am-dram-y to me!’.
It reminded me - and still does - something that I used to say often and I still believe in wholeheartedly: acting, this beautiful craft I and so many of us love, if it comes from the heart, from the soul, from your whole being, it is one of the most beautiful things to witness. No acting school, no technique in the world will be able to teach one how to portray the raw, messy, beautiful and mesmerising TRUTH of being human. And more often than not, these schools and higher education institutions will probably uproot the very instincts and gut feelings that are THE most precious skills in our craft. I for one am happy I didn’t undergo that ‘rigorous’ training and instead gathered my experience by putting myself in those acting situations, by attending specialist workshops, by starting to learn more about and embrace who I truly am, by tuning into and trusting my gut feeling, and by learning to be present in time and space.
@Schauspielhaus Graz | Johanna Lamprecht
Back to Wendepunkte, these performers courageously related their most intimate and precious stories in such a way that I couldn’t help but to resonate and deeply feel with them. Natasha has somehow weaved together all these very different and unique stories in such a beautiful and seamless way, and yet each and every one of them was very distinct from one another. That is what I call beautiful directorial artistry - to be able to highlight every performer’s experience without taking away from the overall aesthetic and essence of the show. We, the audience members, were faced with ultra-real and unfiltered stories, where every performer would get the spotlight on stage, but then also share the artistic burden of creatively setting up the scene for the others’ stories to come alive. Responsibility-taking was understood by everyone and respectfully applied for the benefit of all involved! Another very potent creative decision taken for the staging of this show was to treat each story from an equal position. Neither one of the scenes was above the other, more significant or important than the other. But each individual scene portrayed an intense, strong and vulnerable story. From how to battle a life-long aggressive illness to confiding one’s trans and transitioning story with the wider public, from how to deal with unattainable expectations - self inflicted or otherwise imposed - to a story of escaping a war-torn country and what that means on an emotional and psychological level. There were no differences made, no comparisons established, if anything this performance treated each of the performer’s stories with the utmost respect and care, and that is why I also believe that it had such a strong impact on the viewers. “Treat others the way you’d love to be treated” comes to my mind and I believe this fits very well with what we’ve witnessed in the case of these individual episodes in ‘Wendepunkte’ too!
Natasha masterfully brought out the best of everyone, combining the seriousness of these stories with lots of sharp comedic elements which allowed the play to breathe, but also kindly gave the audience a bit of respite. One of the many super powers theatre has to offer lies in its ability to unapologetically portray such strong accounts, all whilst allowing for enough space and distance between the deep personal experiences unfolding before our eyes, allowing for enough distance to observe the correlations created between the characters and their stories, allowing to absorb and analyse these in an objective manner whilst still feeling deeply connected to their personal accounts.
These sold-out performances were an act of courage, vulnerability and determination. Determination to speak and perform one’s own truth, vulnerability to open up to hundreds of strangers over the past year, and courage to even fathom the idea of stepping onto the stage narrating one’s story. I was emotional and very humbled to have witnessed the stories of these beautiful people and I couldn’t help but to stand up and applaud them as the lights were slowly dimming. I was proud of the performers, and proud of Natasha and the creative team to have offered these beautiful people such a safe space to ‘uncover’ themselves.
@Schauspielhaus Graz | Johanna Lamprecht
To find out more about this play please visit following link (German only): https://schauspielhaus-graz-archiv.buehnen-graz.com/press-detail/wendepunkte-eine-buergerinnenbuehne-ueber-lebensveraendernde-ereignisse-und-das-alltaegliche-glueck/