2023-09-06 03:35:13
1971. A world between social upheavals and the Cold War. The revolution of 1968 had failed, but the struggle for change continued. That was over half a century ago. In 1971, Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s “The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant” premiered. In the Academy Theater on Tuesday, director Lilja Rupprecht made the play look as old as it is. The tears have dried. Petra von Kant’s fashion turns out to be old-fashioned.
It’s a world where people still say “mannequin”, order plane tickets over the phone and a lesbian relationship causes excitement. The set design by Anna Ehrlich (stage) and Annelies Vanlaere (costumes) tries to cheat on the past by focusing on eccentricity and artificiality. In this art space, Dörte Lyssewski acts as the successful fashion designer Petra von Kant like a ghost, a vampire who fights his own anemia by sucking blood from others. Annamária Láng is the mute, humiliated servant, Nina Siewert is the young, married lover who is even better at the tricks of manipulation than Petra.
There is a lot of talking – sparingly accompanied by Viktoria Mezovsky’s live music. Petra’s slogan is “Tell me about your life”, but actually it’s always about her. She – that’s quite blatantly Rainer Werner Fassbinder himself, who went into self-therapy in the play, which was also successfully filmed soon afterwards, and analyzed the relationships and dependencies of his clique. That’s why the incorporation of Fassbinder interviews in an intermediate scene, in which Stefanie Dvorak (otherwise Petra’s girlfriend Sidonie) plays the questioner and Norman Hacker (otherwise Petra’s mother) plays the interviewee, is the only really successful trick of the staging. In the answers one senses the abysses and loneliness of a life that refused to compromise.
On the other hand, despite all the border crossings and externalizations of the excellent character actress Lyssewski, one sees a quite conventional relationship drama on stage, in which Safira Robens joins in a grotesque mask scene as Petra’s daughter. In view of the thousands of problems that our society is struggling with today, Petra von Kant’s bitter tears come up rather bitterly. In fact, they are crocodile tears. After Petra’s bitterness about the lover’s decision to return to her husband has subsided, the mute servant is targeted: “Tell me about your life”. Skepticism, disbelief and joy are reflected in Annamária Lang’s face. Now her hour has come! She opens her mouth. And: blackout. – Much applause, but little enthusiasm among the premiere guests.
(SERVICE – Rainer Werner Fassbinder: “The bitter tears of Petra von Kant”, director: Lilja Rupprecht, stage design: Anna Ehrlich, costumes: Annelies Vanlaere, video: Moritz Grewenig, with Dörte Lyssewski, Nina Siewert, Annamária Lang, Norman Hacker, Safira Robens and Stefanie Dvorak Live music: Viktoria Mezovsky, Akademietheater Next performances on September 9, 14 and 29, www.burgtheater.at)
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#Eccentricity #artificiality #Fassbinder #Academy #Theater