Doctor Faustus Lights The Lights (programme from the performance)
Gertrude Stein: Always when I write a play
Interview with Robert Wilson
Theatrical Magician and his honour to the world (MF Dnes)

Photos from the performance
Poster of Performance




Doctor Faustus Lights The Lights
Gertrude Stein

This performance originated as a production of the Hebbel-Theater Berlin. The premiere of Prague version took place on June 22, 1994 in the Archa Theatre. Later performances are June 23 - 25, 1994. Presented in the framework of festival "Berlin Today and Here" with the support of the Senate of Berlin. A co-production of the Archa Theatre.

All artistic guidance, direction and staging: Robert Wilson
Music: Hans Peter Kuhn
Doctor Faustus: Thilo Mandel, Christian Ebert, Thomas Lehman
Mefisto in Red: Heiko Senst
Mefisto in Black: Florian Fitz
Marguerite Ida and Helena Annabel: Katrin Hellerová, Wiebke Kayserová, Gabriele Völschová
Small Boy: Matthias Bundschuh
Dog: Wiebke Kayserová
Country Woman: Martin Vogel
Mr. Viper: Moritz Sostmann
Man from Overseas: Thomas Lehmann
Chorus: všichni zúčastnění

Collaborators in Direction: Ann Christin Rommenová, Claudia Bosseová, Christoph Roos
Lights: Heinrich Brunke, Andreas Fuchs
Dramaturgy: Peter Krumme
Choreography: Suzushi Hanayagi
Costumes: Hans Thiemann, Andreas Auerbach, Anja Duklauová, Marie Juliane Fredrichová, Peter Pelzmann, Petra Petersová

Scenic collaboration: Ulv Jakobsen, Cordelia Matthesová, Frank Prielipp, Anke Schkrocková, Bernd Schneider, Jach Schroeder, Angelika Winterová
Musical assistant: Christian Struwe
Masks: Cornelia Wentzelová, Irina Tubeckeová
Head of Stage Technicians: Thomas Schröder, Carsten Wank
Personal Assistant to Robert Wilson: Frank Hentschker
Speech Lessons: Bernd Kunstmann
Studying of the text: Lena Lessingová
Singing Instructor: Michael Gebhart
Introduction to Gertrude Stein: Sissi Taxová
Photography: Archie Kent
Videodocumentary: Antonia Baehrová
Film documentary: Karl Farber, Bernd Heiber, Frank Schulte
Technical production: Media Pool, Berlín
Beams: That Hamburg, Peter Hänle & Peter Holz
Machines: Franz Blersch
Chairs: Klaus Parheil


Tour Team 1994

Collaborative directors: Ann Cristin Rommenová, Christoph Roos
Head of stage technicians: Thomas Schröder, Carsten Wank
Head of light technicians: Andreas Fuchs
Head of sound technicians: André Herbell
Machinery: Franz Blersch
Lights: Lutz Deppe, Jean Marie Engler
Stage Manager: Matthias Deppe
Masks: Katherine Oertelová
Prompting and costumes: Amelie Syberbergová
Speech lessons: Bernd Kunstmann
Head of production: Maria Magdalena Schwaegermannová
Organization, tour management: Elisabeth Knaufová
Technical organization: Susanne Görresová





Gertrude Stein: Always when I write a play

When I am writing a play I am writing one now I am writing about Daniel Webster, whenever I write a play it is a play because it is a thing I do not see but it is a thing somebody can see that is what makes a play to me. When I see a thing it is not a play to me because the minute I see it ceases to be a play for me, but when I write something that somebody else can see then it is a play for me. When I write other things not plays it is something that I can see and seeing it is inside of me but when I write a play then it is something that is inside of me but if I could see it then it would not be. And so I do write a lot of plays and they are things for somebody to see and somebody does see them, sometimes there will be lots more of them given.





Interview with Robert Wilson

Gertrude Stein is called "The Mother of us all". Are you, in this sense, the son of Gertrude Stein?
Wilson: Well, I think, Stein influenced me at the beginning of my work.

Can you tell us exactly when you last read Stein's text?
W: I think in the middle of Sixties I read "The Making of Americans". And also I listened her spoken albums. As a matter of fact, it was before the beginning of my theatre work, and it was a part of my thoughts or of my consciousness. I wasn't yet interested in theatre, that came across as psychological or naturalistic. As I have often said, I was interested in dance theatre, especially the theatre of George Balanchin, then later the theatre of Merce Cunningham and John Cage. The reason I like it was that I could watch and listen to it without any pains and there was plenty of room to think about it. The same as in the countryside or somewhere similar. That I could listen to music and see movements. Or I could listen to the text and tones. That I could watch and listen at the same time. Therefore, at that time, I was more interested in the dance that I had seen in New York, than the theatre. And most of it took place on Broadway or at the opera.
Stein interested me as a writer. The wit, the cunningness... I don't think it will ever be possible to commercialize Stein. She will always remain something special. Something that is architecture, structure, rhythm, comedy. It invites a person to create pictures inside his head. Even if he subscribes to something, the text still has a enough room for pictures, for pictures that everyone can make themselves. It is something very concrete, where the surface remains very still. It creates the opportunity for a person to penetrate the text because it has a definite accessibility. At first glance, it doesn't look so complicated, but once a person goes into the text, it strikes him as very complex. And this is something very special about her style. The secret is sitting deep under the surface.

We would like to you explain us, why in this case you work with young people and not with trained actors.
W: I wanted to make something with students and young people. From time to time, I work with young people. In this concrete example, with young people from East Berlin, and I wanted for their own education to do something with them, that they still do not know.The text of Gertrude Stein. It is a text in a language that is foreign to them, aesthetic, something that is very American. They do not know any of this. Something that didn't appear during their education, but I as an American could possibly choose. So I chose material that contains some familiarities to Goethe's Faust, that they read and is a part of their education. But which according to Gertrude Stein, moves ina completely different direction in the sense of the story. Very American.

Do you see any connection between Doctor Faustus and your "Edison"?
W: Definitely. May be we can see an incarnation of Edison in this character of Faustus. It could be called Edison. With Faustus as a explorer of electric light. It can be something destructive or something non-destructive to change the World. It has the power to cure even to destroy.

Is it always poison and gift at once. And it stays to be ambiguous.
W: As a fire can be something what warm us and destroy. It is something, which it has to be dealt with explicit caution.

Is it always poison and a gift in one? And does it remain two sided?
W: As with fire, it can be something that to us burns and also destroys. It is something with which it must be dealt with extreme care.

Do you like to work with young people? What kind of experience have you had with them?
W: I work with their bodies; movements as if they are dancing. So a person must start from point zero - at the point in which he stops and pays attention to the movement that already exists. Not something that he has to produce or make. It is something that is a part of the continuum that exists. From this, we can then go out and build, develop a dictionary of speech, gesture and movement. I started almost every rehearsal by remaining in complete silence. This morning, everyone in the company stood in silence until I said: "Places. Let's start." We started by lying on the floor and slowly we stood up. It takes maybe three or four minutes before we are all standing, we calmly regulate our own body weight in order to repeat a movement that is familiar to everyone. Then we begin to move our arms, and start to think about lines that we can create with just one finger.
The body is made up of certain rays of light, and these rays can be pulled by space. They can lead in, out, take twenty centimeters from a person, a mile from him, they continue to Mars. We can start with immobility, we would be able to concentrate on a movement. Similarly, it happens in rehearsals that we start with something calm: we perceive a tone that also exists as a part of the continuum. A perfect calmness does not exist, in the same way that something that is not a movement doesn't exist. From immobility, we can perceive movement, from silence, we can perceive tone. When we start to talk, it is a part of the continuum that is infinite. And when we stop talking, nothing ends. It is part of the continuum. And if we find a light in the space, a natural light, no light that is produced, its light weight in a space with loud gestures, we find the mass and the weight of the space. Even more abstract is the approach to the text that is in the explicit sense very abstractive, even if it is very concrete, but is very difficult to speak about style because it is concrete. It is what it is. It is hard to make more out of it.

What is it like to work with novice actors?
W: During one exercise I said: "You can be in the space and then leave the space. But when you do it, don't take your presence with you - leave your presence on the stage. And when you enter the stage, don't disturb it because everyone else it there. Now you can leave the space and actually enter it." Eventually, most of the actors who definitely still questioned it and spoke about it, managed it. This impressed me. It impressed me that their technique was so strong. By the technique, I am thinking how a person stays, how he moves, how he sits, how he raises a glass to drink.

Is there a different between students in East Germany and in Hamburg years ago where you worked with them on "Hamlet Machine"?
W: Definitely. Young people here (in East Berlin) are better in technique. They have training of the body that is an addition to the training of the soul. It is a different education, to educate the body and spirit at the same time.

Do you prefer the method from the East?
W: Yes. In Europe, great meaning is not generally attached to the education of the body. It is more of an exercise of the intellect as such. But the body is experienced and finally it belongs to a picture that the person begins with his own body, because he is owner of his own body. It is still the beginning, the entrance point. The body of every man has a different weight, appearance, outline, shape. A perfect body does not exist, but something exists that is valuable and interesting. For this reason, we must known our own bodies, so that we can create whatever: soul, voice, personality, everything is realized through the attention of the body. I see the difference when young people prepare for rehearsal, when we begin very calmly, we lie on the floor, we slowly get up or just share a common feeling, we free ourselves, we create explicit tension with this freedom. As if their consciousness is free. A person learns much faster when he doesn't come from a quiet street, looks a little and then starts to work.
The man learns faster, when he doesn't just come in from noisy street, talking a little and then beginning to work. It is another state of consciousness, with which man enters his work, than when he starts from nothing. You must return from something very continual, basic and from that you can build.

Is it something like writing on an empty piece of paper?
W: Like when Cézanne painted with his water-colours. You start with one layer, you lightly paint over it, you continue with another layer, then one more, and then once more with your brush - during that time, the man still works as a whole. According to your fantasy, you can stop on an exact point, even if you are still working on the whole of these through their own addition of transparent things in a virtual space.

Did you think about an American version from the very beginning?
W: Not in any event because this young people really didn't speak English; that's why we were afraid that they wouldn't be able to speak the text in English, but I soon had the feeling that it would be more interesting in English, even if they had no idea what they were saying exactly or if they had a German accent. In these circumstances, that they didn't know what they were saying, it was something very interesting. Later they worked on their English and during that time, they rehearsed on the stage. I knew that it would work. This text really isn't possible to translate.

Perhaps not, because in German everything is a lot longer, there isn't much emphasis on auxiliary verbs which is a part of poetry of Gertrude Stein. I would like to quote Virgil Thomson who set two operas of Gertrude Stein to music - you can comment it or you don't have to. " She had a taste in writing great closing sentences, which are similar to the codas of Beethoven. She truly wrote poetry in the same way as a composer works. She chose a theme and unfolded it, or rather she left words to be unfolded by freely unfolding the tones and senses." But perhaps we should rather speak about this that Gertrude Stein's text of Faustus could have been a opera libretto. In addition to the words and words, we have music in the entire play. Tell us, why do you want to have songs and music in the play?
W: With a play, it must be dealt with feelings, because the text alone is already musical. If we were to try to make music for the text, the text would be destroyed. It is not possible to make the music for it , because by itself it is music. That is why we have to have a definite respect for it, to be modest against it. But at the same time, we risk becoming its slave. That is why we must also keep a distance. We all see and hear other things in addition to the text. Other music, movements, tones or whatever. And if it is possible and they can hold out as independently occupying their own space, they can assert their own identity, without losing anything. So music can work against text, but it doesn't have to suppress it, it doesn't have to compete with it. Yesterday, we rehearse still one piece of music, but it didn't work, because it didn't leave any room. So we had to cut it because there wasn't any space for it in the head. It didn't leave any room for the pictures on the stage, for a glance into Stein's space, for listening to her text. A person has to have a music at his disposition, which is strong in itself, but which doesn't overlap that which it can amplify. The individual parts must be able to support each other.





Theatrical Magician and his honour to the world

World famous Robert Wilson in his production of "Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights" prepared a magical ceremony of light and darkness, music and sound, reality and dream, space, time and movement. The story alone - originally an opera libretto of Gertrude Stein about Faust who sold his soul for the invention of electricity - is not so important. As for the rest of the programme, it consists as a synopsis with all peripets, along with the phantom-like characters from a talking dog to a woman with two names to a Country wife with a sickle.
          Wilson mixes theatre and the precision of visual art with the secret of a sorcerer and with the feel for opera and the effect of a cabaret. From easy combinations - white and black, human characters and high rectangle of white linen - he presents the important aspect that is created by colours, sound and stirring, music, speech, song and stylised movement of the actors, to the refined scenes. Each of these "theatrical pictures" - taken out of the performance - could be decorations found in many a world gallery.
          The main hero of Wilson's production is light. Light from the bulb, candle, light rectangles, which spreads the shape of the horizon of the universe, the light of the reflectors or the light coming out from under the "beam" which - hung on an almost invisible of moving traction - created the dominant aspect of the stage. The character of Mephisto, who is a precise mix of punk and a circus clown, also radiated light from within.
          The perfection, from which Robert Wilson created this variation on Faust, doesn't come across as self-righteous artifact of noble boredom. The great opera of gesture and tragedy was a penetration of a precise dosage of comedy and was a performance in its own explosive possibilities balancing itself as a view to the depth of the universe.

Zdeněk A. Tichý, MF Dnes, 24. 6. 1994