Out of Austria
April 2012
From one of Europe’s most revered authors of the 20th century comes a tale of contrasts, egos, tension and humour – all serving as commentary on the gradual decay of post-war Austrian civilisation.
Debuting at The Malthouse Theatre this month, Melbourne director Daniel Schlusser brings to life Thomas Bernhard’s wry drama The Histrionic.
“He’s definitely one of the more significant European writers of the second half of the 20th century,” Schlusser says of Bernhard. “The thing is that he’s just had delayed fame in the English-speaking world because his work has been very hard to translate. It’s very idiosyncratic Austrian language which makes it extremely unique and complex. It’s not straight-down the line like German, which people are experienced in translating. Austrian has its own dialect and there are things that you can only do with Austrian that you cannot with any other language. More recently, Bernhard’s reputation has been flowering in English-speaking countries, which is fantastic because he writes with very special insight into the mess that’s been post-war Europe and the decay of the Austrian civilisation over that 50-year period.”
For Schlusser personally, the plot and the characters that make up The Histrionic have given the director an opportunity to explore what interests him the most – the tension between the tedium and extraordinariness of life.
“My work has always played out some sort of tension between those two extremes in life, so in that respect, The Histrionic has been familiar territory. In simple terms, it’s a story of an actor and his family who are a travelling theatre troupe. They arrive in a regional town at a theatre they’re meant to be performing at, with this grand play called The Wheel Of History which is so incredibly ambitious that is meant to sum up the whole of human history in one play! Bruscon, the lead actor, is proving himself to be quite a tyrant and he bullies his family as well as the locals who are running the theatre. For all his bullying, his own journey is obviously quite complex because he is a character in between being supremely confident and maniacal one minute, then consumed by complete self-doubt and despair the next.”
While The Histrionic may be in essence “a backstage comedy” that unravels in real time, as Schlusser puts it, it’s riddled in metaphors and symbolism despite its many comic moments and, at times, even silly jokes.
“Bille Brown, as Bruscon, carries the monologue over the course of the entire play and it’s almost magical in terms of the poetics of spoken language and comedy. It’s a drama but it’s also humorous in that the script is full of gags and wordplay and silly jokes as well as sophisticated jokes. Within the play, it’s Bruscon’s character that is a metaphor; he is a man who believes himself to be the pinnacle of western civilisation in terms of culture. Here he is, though, touring this regional town, a backwater, and it’s an absolute collision of the provincial town and the metropolis.”
Despite The Histrionic’s European setting, Schlusser insists that the play speaks to Australian audiences in a similar context – the ‘outback’ versus the ‘big smoke’.
“That ‘curtain’ between the rural town and the city in Austria is the same curtain between the rural town in Australia and the city. My hesitation in describing this play as strictly a comment on Europe is that, even though it was written as such, it ends up commenting on Australia’s position as well. You can also look at it as Australia’s position as a peripheral observer and the rest of the world being sort of at a distance, not being part of the dominant discourse… At the same time, there are lots of other sub-plots going on to do with little love affairs and the relationships between the characters that surround Bruscon.”
Although The Histrionic is centred around Bruscon, it’s his exchanges with The Landlord (Barry Otto) that are sure to prove fascinating to the audience, according to Schlusser.
“In our culture both Bille and Barry are renowned as two of the great men of the stage. As an actor, Barry is an absolute gentleman to work with, he’s the most gorgeous individual and his brain, body, curiosity and playfulness is something you don’t often see in older performers. He’s been so open and excited by the chance to work in a way he’s never worked before. Bille is kind of a titan of preparation and he’s a different archetype altogether. He’s much more of a classical actor and we’ve had to work very hard to find a common language, which is essentially perfectionism. We’re both very precise about things. His presence is wonderful, he has an amazing voice, he’s very agile physically and mentally nimble.
“Barry and Bille as actors are at an age where they are amazing performers, even though they’re two very different animals, which is what makes the play all the more dynamic.”
Real life hysteria
Based on real-life events in Strasbourg, France in 1518, where over 400 people were ‘infected’ by a dancing epidemic, the Four Larks Theatre Company delves into possible causes of mass hysteria in The Plague Dances.
“We’re not setting our story particularly in the Medieval Ages, it’s more about taking elements from that time period, such as isolationism, superstition and not a great knowledge of how the world or our bodies work,” explains Sebastian Peters-Lazaro of Four Larks. “We are particularly interested in exploring the basic idea of hysteria from different vantage points. The fact is that several different potential causes may have been involved in the dancing plague, such as cultural, superstitious or religious ideas – there were many factors that created an environment in which you could believe you were possessed by something.”
In the case of The Plague Dances, it is the effects of living in a small, isolated community that are explored as potential causes of such phenomena, according to Peters-Lazaro. But it isn’t only through the actors’ performances that the darkness and mystery of the play captures the audience, it is also through the set itself.
“The look and the feel of the timber, for example, add a sense of history to the setting. Instead of having paintings, we’re using real materials, such as wood which really shows its age and colours. We find that aesthetically enriching, which complements the performance. A lot of what we’re using is what we’ve just found from going through rubbish clusters or making friends with demolishing workers in our neighbourhood! But the main aim has been to add the look and feel of history to it all.”
The Histrionic shows at the Merlyn Theatre, Malthouse, from April 2 to May 5
The Plague Dances shows at the Tower Theatre, Malthouse, from April 14 to May 6
Photo: Garth Oriander
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