Viewers are caught in the jaws of real life by theatre productions from Germany and the Netherlands at the Adelaide Bank Festival of Arts. 

Many say they go to the movies and the theatre to escape life's harsh reality. For the two hours they spend in that dimly lit air-conditioned box, they want to be entertained by light-hearted comedies and extravagant musicals. However, the interest in serious true-to-life stage drama is still strong worldwide, as evident in the number of new naturalistic plays and revivals of last century's masterpieces each year. It seems that the more TV soap operas shy away from gritty real life, the more eager we are to leave the sofa and brave the traffic to watch sincere portrayals of human beings trapped in extraordinary situations.

A highlight of last month's Adelaide Bank Festival of Arts was the production of Tennessee Williams' 1955 tragic drama "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" - performed here in German with English surtitles by Berlin's Schaubuhne am Lehniner Platz theatre. Globally praised German theatre director Thomas Ostermeier brought a highly truthful style of acting, credible characterisation, well-harmonised ensemble work and a nicely varied pace to the Adelaide stage.

Though two hours long with no intermission, there were few dull moments in the play. The stage was dominated by a sleek, modern set design of high glass windows and doors with the focus on a large, live bird that clung to a tree branch. It set the mood for a tale of characters trapped in a simmering love-hate family feud.

        "Cat" photos by Arno Declair      

"People's social experiences are so disrupted and, in many cases, broken, that the need to at least fake something like unity, context and design is growing," said Ostermeier in the programme.

The artistic paws of his "Cat" served as solid proof that the art of straightforward reality can still captivate a theatre audience.

Dutch theatre company Kassys' production of "Kommer" ("Sorrow") took the drama of the real to another level. "We don't like faking any part of theatre," say Liesbeth Gritter and Mette van der Sijs, the two leaders of this Amsterdam-based group. "Often on the stage, people exaggerate, delivering dialogue they wouldn't use in normal life."

As members of the audience walked in to find their seats at the Space Theatre, a black-box playhouse in the compound of the Adelaide Festival Centre, we could already see six actors in ordinary clothes talking in low voices on the stage. Their bare surroundings were punctuated by six chairs, two tables, a CD player, pot plants and small, dry sandwich.

Soon after the house lights dimmed, we learned that the six were using their real names, and that all were trying to come to terms with the recent deaths of loved ones. Their clumsy but naturalistic attempts to comfort each other - the fruit of improvisations in rehearsals - often triggered our laughter. Even in the gaps in dialogue, the true-to-life comedy of awkwardness continued, with things like an inappropriate song that one character inadvertently selected on the CD player.

"Kommer" photos by Klaas Paradies

Forty-five minutes later, the actors were bowing to our loud applause, but that wasn't the end of this performance. A screen was rolled down above the stage and for the next half hour a film followed the six from the curtain call we had just witnessed to the dressing room, then beneath the greasepaint to the "real" personal life of each thespian. One actress, for example, led a second life as a flight attendant, and we saw evidence of her personal angst in a scene where a fire extinguisher was used to smash the mirror, toilet and sink on a flight. Another actor dealt with his loneliness by driving his sports car at high speed with eyes closed.

"Kommer" is a prime example of mixed-media contemporary performance that exploits the strengths of each medium to maximum effect for a thoroughly credible staging of "real life. The border between theatre and film was crossed here, and with it the thin line separating reality and fiction.

written by Pawit Mahasarinand

published in The Nation on Saturday, April 12, 2008

all photos are courtesy of Adelaide Bank Festival of Arts

special thanks to Mardi Zeunert and Imogen Collette for all assistance