the political

							 theatre




Personalising
                        the political
Over There
Collapsing ideologies are collaboratively explored in European theatre
— Mark Ravenhill and Ramin Gray’s production of Over There personalises the political.




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             009 marks both the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin    recent history as something which continually affects people — “you
             Wall, and the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the       often think of history as either something that has happened or
             Federal democratic republic of West Germany. To mark             something rather abstract, but actually all around us people’s lives are
             the event the royal Court is working with the Goethe-            being absolutely shaped by huge political economic social events over
             Institute, the schaubühne am Lehniner Platz in Berlin, and       which they have no control whatsoever.” ravenhill’s particular talents
             the German Federal Cultural Foundation on a series of new        in aligning the two enabled him to be co-commissioned by the royal
plays about Germany. The off the Wall season will showcase a week of          Court and the schaubühne to write the play, “Mark is a brilliant writer
readings of new German plays as well as new productions penned by             for that, because he’s a playwright with two very different sides to his
Marius von Mayenburg and Mark ravenhill.                                      personality. He’s very good at writing Brechtian political social epics,
  Mark ravenhill’s latest offering Over There, is directed by ramin Gray      but at the same time he’s a brilliant notator of naturalistic, real tangible
and explores the contradictions of a city divided for 40 years by a           detail.” The play explores the reunion of two identical twins, Franz
physical wall and an intangible ideology. ramin Gray discusses the new        and Hanz, after the fall of the wall in November 1989, following the
season and his hopes for engaging more with the German aesthetics of          moment when their mother fled to the west with Franz in the middle of
theatre-making in the 21st century: “the project commissioned writers         the Cold War. “It’s a play about how politics and the great movements
in various countries to write about collapsing ideologies because             of history impact on real ordinary lives” and the narrative consists of
that’s what the wall was about.” In their own direct and indirect ways,       various flashbacks exploring their mother’s prosperous existence in
the writers then interpreted and personalised the transcendent                the west in comparison to their father’s banal, alcoholic demise in the
theme. off the Wall is also integral in continuing the royal Court’s          east. With fantasy sequences dreaming about a move to America and
long-term collaboration with Berlin theatre, “a very fruitful exchange        expositions on two very different upbringings, Over There encompasses
of playwrights and directors going backwards and forwards;” and the           the realities of existence in a divided nation, but ravenhill was keen to
partnership has seen seminal writers such as ravenhill and sarah Kane         maintain a humour in the production, something that would bring the
flourish creatively over the years. The Goethe-Institute’s writing projects   events back towards a personal experience. “The mother very comically
are taking place throughout Europe, and the artistic collaboration            is confused as to which son she took with her” and the casting of the
highlights the unification of not just a country, but also a continent that   Tredaway twins creates opportunities for both a real authenticity in the
has long been divided. Gray explains that “Marius’ play is set in dresden     production, and the traditional theatrical farces so often associated
and in the middle of it is the firebombing of dresden, a horrific moment      with confused identities.
of the allies dropping huge numbers of bombs, but there’s something             The naming of the protagonists as Hanz and Franz represents an
wonderful about the fact that it’s Berlin and London who are having a         almost everyman characterisation, highlighting ravenhill’s emphasis on
very strong theatrical relationship now.”                                     the personal implications of what could otherwise be an indeterminate
  off the Wall embraces the experience of the individual to understand        overview of political movements. “When you’re writing a play about
a wider political context and emphasises the continued importance of          something that is so massive and abstract as collapsing ideologies, it is

 Aesthetica
                                                                                                      “All around us people’s lives are being
                                                                                                     absolutely shaped by huge political
                                                                                                     economic social events over which
                                                                                                     they have no control whatsoever.”
              very difficult, because plays are about human beings. Vague      over the playwright. “I’ve certainly got an ambition to try to get some
             specifications rarely work because there is no such real          of that German aesthetic into it, because when you see productions
            person as Mr Communism. You have to start from a personal          over there they are very different to the work we do over here. Here
            place. Mark came up with the idea of identical twins because       the director’s job is this sort of abstract, neutral conduit, whereas in
           of this. so it is about a separation by ideology, but there’s a     Germany, the director is expected to make interventions.” Having
          tangible family story at the heart of it.”                           previously been quoted as seeing his role as facilitator towards the
          With the commissioned playwrights encouraged to write                playwright’s work, Gray is revising his own interpretations to introduce
  about the collapse of ideologies in their own society, ravenhill             a more independent direction to February’s production. “I was trying
“originally thought he’d write about Thatcherism or Blairism, but found        to say that in a provocative way, but I’m so bored of that. Mark and I are
 he kept coming back to 1989 and the fall of the wall as a really defining     old enough and know each other well enough to think there are other
 moment.” He subsequently shifted his interests to Berlin. The play            ways of doing it, and we’d like to explore that.”
 emphasises the complexities of the German existence as a backdrop              The off the Wall season, and its fellow anniversary projects around
 to Hanz and Franz’s experiences. despite its unification for the past         Europe showcase a collaboration between institutions, and Over There
 20 years, Berliners remain attuned to the differences in their Eastern        hopes to represent the ubiquitous nature of political experience. By
 and Western culture. “There’s a tenor about how they behave and how           exploring a very notable event, of which there is little comparison in
 they are, there’s a real difference. They were such profoundly different      Britain, ravenhill and Gray feel that “the more specific it is about the
 societies, living with a shared language, living right next door to each      German experience, the more chance perhaps it has of resonating
 other, there’s nothing comparable in the English experience.”                 about other things in England, like for example class.” The context
   After completing his first draft in 2008 ravenhill spent the latter half    through which this production has come to being has created an
 of the year conducting research into the experiences of Berliners of          atmoshpere of real cross-cultural fraternisation and a European alliance.
 all ages before and after the fall of the wall, placing a real emphasis       By alerting British theatre-goers to both the German existence and the
 on authenticity to counteract the connotations of writing on another          German treatment of drama in the 21st century, ravenhill and Gray’s
 country — “Germans can tell whether someone’s an ossi or a Wessi              work promises an exciting exposition of a familiar theme.
 (an eastie or a westie)” and this is something which ravenhill needed           Over There, and Marius von Mayenburg’s The Stone will be performed
 to explore. similarly Gray hopes to match these revisions of the script       at the royal Court alongside other events as part of the off the Wall
 with his own influences from German theatre. “Mark’s had to do quite a        season from 25 February - 21 March 2009. For further details please
 lot of research to really get inside the mindset and I hope there’s a way     visit www.royalcourttheatre.com.
 in the production of making it really visible.”
   There is a clear difference to the role of director in German and English                                                              Pauline Bache
 productions, and as an experiment concentrating on Germany Gray
 hopes to embrace the greater freedoms that German direction affords

                                                                                                                                          Aesthetica