Extraordinary Narratives for Young Audiences of All Ages

Since the International Theater Festival Schöne Aussicht (Bright View), which is organized biennially by JES (Junges Ensemble Stuttgart / Stuttgart Young Ensemble) with the financial support of the municipality and the ministry, was canceled last year due to the pandemic, it takes place this year both in the physical space and online for the theaters in Germany starting to open.  

There are not only performances at the festival, but also various events and most importantly, a workshop organized by ASSITEJ (International Association of Children's and Youth Theaters) that lasts for a week during the festival. This workshop titled Concepts for a Theater of Solidarity for Young Audiences is held via Zoom and is open to professional artists and anyone wanting to change things. Respecting and not categorizing the various realities lived in, the workshop is built on thinking and exchanging ideas about questions such as; How can we create theatre for young audiences that practices solidarity on and beyond the stage? Which images and narratives do we create to describe the World we live in without reproducing racism, sexism, classism, ableism, hostilities towards people of the trans- and queer communities and discriminating conditions? How does this affect our artistic work and also the structures of theatre?

Last Sunday evening (June, 6th), the festival was opened by Rita, a joint production of Bronks – Theater for a Young Audience and Tuning People from Belgium.

While a dramatic melody of an opera is playing, the blinds, which we will later realize belongs to a small window, opens and a blue light begins to pour in slowly. At the same time, while the black curtain on the other side of the stage is lifted, a white room emerges with only its corner walls. A one-person table and a chair leans against one of the walls, a stool on the other. An elderly chubby woman with curly hair, two rows of pearl necklaces, a button-up black blouse, a pleated white skirt and high heels dances to the music for a while before she loses her balance, as if waking up from a dream. She puts on her overcoat and takes her bag. It is as if she wants to get out of the room.

At that moment, a young man in a white T-shirt and pants, with a gold necklace hanging around his neck, enters the room pushing an under-counter refrigerator, and when he calls her "Rita", the blue light suddenly turns into normal light. Rita has returned to the real world. But I wonder if that world is real?... The man says softly, “You are not going anywhere, take off your coat, you will stay here, look, everyone has come for you” and shows her the audience and leaves as calmly as he came. She takes off her overcoat, opens her purse, takes out a small mirror, slightly fears when she sees herself in it, puts on make-up and earrings, and puts the bag in the refrigerator. At that instance, he enters the stage by driving an oven, showing Rita the backstage and saying “Get behind the wall and wait”. He turns to the audience and tell them that his name is Martino, and to shout “Surprise” when Rita comes back to the stage. He rehearses it twice with the audience and exits the stage calling for Rita. She enters the stage not from where she went out, but by moving one of the walls, and is stunned by the shouts of the audience as "Surprise".  

©Clara Hermans

For the next 70 minutes, the young man, about whom I’m not sure whether he is a caretaker or a guard, drives a sink counter into the room, moves the table, takes care of the old woman, tries to prevent her from eating chips and makes her eat apples, chewing the apple that she has not eaten and spitting into her mouth. The under-counter cabinets that form the parts of a kitchen are moved by the young man.

The walls that define the corner of the space are moving apart. The space, which has only a corner, is dispersed thoroughly, walls become passable. The back wall has a pair of recessed cabinet doors at the top which is normally like kitchen countertop cabinets but not protruding as usual, recessed into the wall. Nothing in the space is fixed and usual. It is uncanny. The young man is also a bit uncanny. It is not clear whether he wants the well-being of the old woman or if he takes sadistic pleasure from the things he forced her to do. He may even be the other side of Rita.

The woman looks like a little bit lost, she is as if scattered like the space. From time to time, she retreats to her own world and dances accompanying opera arias. Maybe she's a former singer or ballerina. You sense something wrong about her, but you can't name it. Whether she has a mental problem or suffers from dementia, she is certain to be restless.

Dancer-choreographer Randi De Vlieghe, one of the writers and directors of this production together with Jef van Gestel, played Rita skillfully using the possibilities of the role. Martino was played by Tomas Pevenage at the performance in Stuttgart. Both actors conveyed the uncanny and surprising tides of the spiritual worlds of the protagonists they portrayed to the audience with a calm, natural and not exaggerated interpretation.

The scenography by Wannes Deneer was almost the third actor of the production alongside the other two. It had elements that contained surprises, were moving and/or scaled, and thanks to all these features, it was one of the indispensable building blocks of dramaturgy as an independent protagonist with a identitiy of its own. 

©Clara Hermans

I watched Rita, which I think is a highly qualified and deeply meaningful show that appeals to audiences of all ages, with joy and pleasure as well as restlessness and sadness.  

The festival continues until Sunday (June, 13rd). Every evening a performance is staged and streamed live. The recordings can be watched until June, 30th.

Don't miss the festival performances to step into an extraordinary and young world…

[The Turkish version of this article is published on Tiyatro Tiyatro Dergisi]