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Der Eindringling based on the work by Maurice Maeterlinck (orig. L’Intruse/eng. The Intruder), Idea and realization: Arved Schultze and Steffi Wurster PLATEAUX – New positions in performing arts 2005, Mousonturm Frankfurt. |
The unusual thing about Maeterlinck’s drama is the metaphorical representation of a principle that brings change and death, but remains invisible and only becomes tangible through the effects that it has on its surroundings– similar to the mysterious “something” in David Lynch’s Lost Highway, which enters an apartment and records its sleeping inhabitants on video.
In the staged installation Der Eindringling this principle is not narrated via the usual spectator-actor relationship. Instead the viewer is given the perspective of the intruder, experiencing the first part of the story from the viewpoint of death as it approaches. The camera (visual perspective) moves through the garden, the cellar door and up the staircase into the bedroom. The viewers hear the conversation of the old man with the other family members who sense death approaching.
Ultimately, the spectator is then sent along the same route that s/he knows from the video. S/he reproduces what s/he has seen, thus becoming an intruder in his or her own right. After reaching the fifth floor of the Mousonturm via an outside staircase, s/he enters the scene at the end of the hallway: the bedroom of the sick mother. There s/he experiences a continuation of the drama in the form of an audio drama and stage performance. Via the goods lift, the performative tour takes the spectator down into the cellar into the theatre storeroom where Der Eindringling comes to an end.
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