Düsseldorf, 12 March 2009: "Into the middle of the sky" is what the Chinese playwright Duo Duo sends the audience, and that is to be taken quite literally. Friendly smiling stewardesses in red costumes stand at the doors to the new studio stage of the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus, the seats are covered with blue fleece blankets, airline adverts are playing on the screens above our heads and the floor vibrates under our feet from the roar of the engines. We are all on board and the drama is about to unfold in our midst. A few chairs are still empty at the beginning.
They will be occupied by people who seem very familiar to us, even though they are boarding the plane in distant Beijing. A woman who works in the advertising industry and can't find her way out of her mendacious clichés, a businessman who talks incessantly on his mobile phone, a couple who are chained together in a love-hate relationship and are getting deeper and deeper into their quarrels. They all want to go to New York. Or do they not? Does the woman really want to see her boyfriend again, who is waiting for her there? Does the man want to go back to his family, even though he is still on the phone to the "other" girl he has just left? And the hopeless couple don't want to go to another place anyway, but to another time, a time before all the rifts.
Fall into a bottomless pit.
Consequently, Duo Duo doesn't let the plane take off at all. There are no explanations for this, but there is something to eat and a blanket to sleep on. The passengers rage and fight as if their lives were at stake. And that's exactly what they do. Because the moment the brimming routine of everyday life is replaced by the emptiness of waiting, they fall into a bottomless pit, plunging defencelessly into the seething chaos or into the vacuum that paralyses them.
The author Duo Duo, born in 1951, has made a name for himself primarily as a poet. He was an eyewitness to the violence against the demonstrators on Tiananmen Square in 1989 and subsequently lived in exile in Europe for 15 years. He returned to China in 2004 and now teaches at a university. The poetic power of the lyricist also characterises large sections of this play. When it comes to the visions, fears and longings of the characters, Duo finds strong, haunting and surprising images that are fascinating in their strangeness and yet intensely relatable. The piece hovers between farce, parable and surreal dream play.
Choirs, Tai Chi and slapstick
Cao Kefei's production is also at odds with all stylistic definitions. The director works in Germany and China and is particularly committed to presenting contemporary drama from one country in the other. She has also translated theatre plays herself, including works by Thomas Bernhard, which she was able to perform in her home country despite the difficulties with censorship. Cao's production plays with many means and possibilities: choral speaking is juxtaposed with video technology, Tai Chi with slapstick. In this way, she finds convincing realisations for the many different pitches of the text. The performers - all members of the Düsseldorf ensemble - venture sensitively and with commitment into the “middle of the sky", into the regions between dream and reality, where there is no longer any solid ground underfoot.
"Into the middle of the sky" makes you want to get to know contemporary drama from China, which is completely unknown territory in this country. The evening suggests that a vital, physical and at the same time linguistically powerful theatre can be discovered that draws on a variety of sources. For three days, the new Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus central is now offering an opportunity to explore the Chinese theatre scene with readings, discussions with authors, performances and films.
Into the middle of the sky (UA)
by Duo Duo
Director: Cao Kefei, stage: Wang Guofeng, costumes: Sabine Thoss, video/music: Michael Deeg, dramaturgy: Christoph Lepshy
With: Lisa Arnold, Michael Deeg, Matthias Fuhrmeister, Esther Hausmann, Kathleen Morgeneyer, Christoph Müller and Xenia Snagowski
