4/10 - Das Reich: Hospital der Geister, directed by Jan-Christoph Gockel at the Schauspielhaus Graz

based on Lars von Trier and Niels Vørsel’s TV Show ‘The Kingdom’

Was it a TV Show? A film? A performance? Or a theatre play?

It was all in one.

It was a TV show developing before your eyes - you just forget you are in a theatre. Rarely I have found myself absorbed to SUCH AN extent in a performance, that you simply forget where you are. And that’s what good TV shows do, they entice you to keep on watching until you finish the bloody thing. This was the case with this splendid adaptation of Lars von Trier and Niels Niels Vørsel’s TV Show ‘Das Reich: Hospital der Geister’. The use of multidisciplinary media to convey the happening on the stage, as well as puppetry and live song made this performance an exquisite example of what a symphony would look like in theatre form!

The show is oozing with a typical Lars von Trier aesthetic - for those who know his work, you know what I am talking about - it was quite visceral and out-there production, no hiding or attempts to make things look pretty or digestible. Hospital environments are per se clinical and quite sterile, deeply impersonal. Add to the mix the mentioned aesthetic and you get a cold, eerie and hostile environment materialising before your eyes. But all this is necessary to create the right atmosphere for the events to unravel. I applaud the creative decision to use everything in the theatre as performance elements and space, including the clever use of the ‘basement’ as additional spaces. It truly enhanced the eeriness, eventually leading to the question if what you see is grounded in reality at all, or if it is a reality within a reality? Objects you would normally define by its use within a certain context, suddenly attain a distorted meaning and it’s quite extraordinary how your mind simply forgets what it is in the first place and accepts the new meaning attributed to it, i.e. a normally uninhabitable space under the stage suddenly becomes a hospital worker’s room, or the meeting space of a secret lodge.

Despite the demanding technical requirements, the

transitions from scene to scene were absolutely

@ Schauspielhaus Graz | Lex Karelly seamless.

When you think about live streaming in very tight spaces, mostly with at least 2-3 actors in one tiny room, and let’s not forget the rotating stage too, it must have been a nightmarish logistical process and I am sure hours have been dedicated during rehearsals to get this working so smoothly and without any noticeable glitches. A massive shout out goes to Timo Neubauer and the video crew who enabled the live-stream and action to unfold so smoothly before our eyes. The pressure must have been immense since most of the first act relied heavily on the seamless running of the live-stream. Any hiccup would have affected the beautiful illusion created - that of watching a staged TV-Show. Of course, should that have happened, the ensemble would have absolutely carried the narrative, since the chemistry projected and created was (even behind the projection curtain) absolutely tangible.

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It’s not often I felt such intense collaboration and chemistry between actors on stage - 100% comparable to the performances seen at the Royal Opera House in London. There was an absolute devotion of the actors on stage. You just know when the team loves what they’re doing, because everything runs so seamlessly, it’s like a well-written symphony - and I am not saying previous performances weren’t top notch, they were impeccable, but this production had something special about it, something one can’t put one’s finger on it, and it’s purely based on and relying on one’s feeling which arises when seeing the scenes unfolding live. You could literally share the feeling of comfort and ease the actors were emanating, on and off stage, it was pure magic. These are the sweet spots in a performance, when everything just comes together in a perfect moment, when everything flows and you forget…forget about space and time, and you’re there feeling and experiencing with the actor. Only that this moment lasted for an entire show, which is again a whole new level of theatre-experience.

And I believe that is why the ‘risky’ decision to leave the stage completely empty every now and then whilst the filming continued, worked so well too. Everything had to be in sync, working perfectly together, relying on each other to achieve this masterpiece.

The stamina of the actors throughout the show was incredible. To be able to maintain the already well-defined and strong characters through the whole performance, as well as adjusting themselves to the aesthetical and technical requirements of both acts, shows refined craftsmanship and confident use of one’s acting skills; BUT also a strong, bold and courageous directorial vision which translates these sometimes subtle, other times quite big, changes onto the stage.

I found it very heart-warming and so needed to include actors with disabilities in the performance, in order to stimulate acknowledging and understanding - due to the subject matter of the play in itself, it enhanced and elevated the whole performance, by linking it to and making it obvious for us, the public, how and what reality really looks like for some on a daily basis. I was also pleased to be treated to some comedic relief in between the ‘episodes’ - may that be with a slightly dark humour to it, but nevertheless very welcome - by comedy duo Matthias Ohner and Florian Finsterbusch, because the whole subject matter of the show wasn’t as easy to swallow.

What I mean by that is, that I believe this production has truly achieved to challenge us with our own mortality, to bring us face to face @ Schauspielhaus Graz | Karelly, Lamprecht

with one’s own expiry date, and this has been sprinkled into the

production on a number of occasions. And it all culminates with the appearance of the ghost of a little 9-year old girl, a little tormented soul who’s been wandering the corridors of the eerie hospital for decades. I found it very interesting that the portrayal of any mystical beings would immediately take you to the realm of fantasy, but in the case of this production something made it feel incredibly visceral and real. No doubt the cold aesthetic of the production and the overall atmosphere created through the toned-down colour palette helped with the harmonious adjustment to this dark reality.

@ Schauspielhaus Graz | Karelly, Lamprecht

This juxtaposed with the welcoming of a new life, impersonated by the puppet Brüderchen - skillfully manoeuvred by puppeteer and actor Michael Pietsch - created a strong image that one couldn’t easily ignore: the co-existence and necessity of both life and death, a circle which can’t ever be escaped, ignored, or broken. How many ghosts of our own will we carry throughout our lives, without wanting to or being able to let go? Others notice them by simply observing how we conduct our lives, warning us when needed, but we might just decide to leave them be, because it’s becoming the normal, the familiar, and not the anomaly that needs to be released and healed.

It’s been a desire of mine to create something for the stage that leaves the audience hungry for more, a bit like a damn-good TV show. Seeing and experiencing this production cemented the idea that it is totally possible. So thank you Schauspielhaus Graz for showing me that this is truly doable, not only from a pure stage-craft point of view, but also from a technological one. And moreover, that the chemistry, the coherent and flawless collaboration between ensemble, technical crew, and creative team can be achieved at such a qualitative level and therefore translate so impeccably well on stage! #theatregoals for sure!

Find out more about the SHG adaptation here (German only):

https://schauspielhaus-graz.buehnen-graz.com/play-detail/hospital-der-geister/

@ Schauspielhaus Graz | Karelly, Lamprecht