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Theodoros Terzopoulos Perfomance prepared inside the “Masters in Residence” programme I first presented Mauser in Athens in 2009 on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of Heiner Müller’s birth. Mauser is a political piece par excellence, considered to be a nodal play in world drama and Heiner Müller’s work. Starting from the historical circumstance of the civil war between Bolsheviks and Tsarists, Müller explores the ethics of revolution, dogmatism, the depreciation of human life, and the defeat of communism. He involves the dramatis personae in the cogs of the machine that produces executioners and makes them confront the primitive violence likely to arise in the course of a revolution. Mauser was a gun that the rebels, the victors, used to execute their enemies. Symbolically, Mauser is the end of the crime, death and the war machine. Müller’s play, as well as our performance, was based on the notion of overstepping the mark, a moment that creates either heroes or criminals. In an era of moral decline and commercialization, such plays may be redemptive, as long as we capture their core meaning. This requires in-depth research and hard work, good ideas and inspiration, as Mauser is not just a political play about the Russian Civil War. It focuses on the Russian Revolution and the subsequent civil war, but also incorporates every civil war, even the one between instinct and rationality, the essential rupture between Dionysus and Apollo. On an ontological level, Mauser probes deeply into human nature and addresses all the questions posed in ancient Greek tragedy: What is the human being? What is it all about? What is man, this stranger who, in some circumstances – during a war or civil war – is capable of killing, becoming a murderer, a slaughterer? With the questions so framed, the play is an examination of human nature. As I enter the Grotowski Institute, I see the photo of Antonin Artaud – the portrait of a martyr and prophet. Looking into his eyes I can feel him mourning for a lost utopia, which triggers a train of thoughts in my mind. The heavy heritage of Jerzy Grotowski… The “poor theatre” and the “holy actor”, creativity as an act of violence and atonement, overstepping the laws of theatre, and salvation. The aphorisms, ideas and dreams of a practitioner who has left an indelible mark on 20th-century Theatre. We must follow in his footsteps, continue his explorations, and go beyond them. Perhaps somewhere along the way we will find the future of theatre… Heiner Muller’s Mauser in Poland… The play bears witness to the anguish of an entire nation. How can I ignore History and Memory, the wound still so fresh, and the unceasing human pain? “War is the father of all”, said Heraclitus. Experience of war leaves a deep mark on one’s soul, causing lament and mourning for the loss of the comrade, brother, our very own self. “What is the human being?” – the question echoes excruciatingly through every facet of History. The madness of war, death, and the silence that follows, all raise the same question over and over again: “What is the human being?” Memory cannot be silenced; the feeling of defeat overcomes the “laws of history”, forcing us to come face-to-face with humanity and the most profound aspects of our mortality. How to describe revolution other than as that profound feeling of mortality, rousing our dreams beyond pain and mourning, thus ultimately forcing us to look afresh at people? Let us open our minds, let us allow fresh air to cross the walls of every kind of totalitarianism, so that we can breathe again – open and accessible to one another. Thedoros Terzopoulos
TEXT: Heiner Müller TRANSLATION: Mateusz Borowski, Ma³gorzata Sugiera DIRECTOR, ADAPTATION, INSTALLATION, LIGHTING: Theodoros Terzopoulos ASSISTANT: Antonios Myriagkos ACTORS: Jolanta Góralczyk, Przemys³aw Wasilkowski, Przemys³aw B³aszczak, Marcin Misiura, Mateusz Smaczny, Bartosz Bielenia, Jan Hussakowski (11, 14–15 December 2014) PHOTOINSTALLATION: Johanna Weber MUSIC: Panagiotis Velianitis LIGHTING ENGINEER: Janusz Bilicki SOUND ENGINEER: Pawe³ Nowak SET CONSTRUCTION: Andrzej Walada, Krzysztof Nawój STAGE MANAGER: Piotr Jacyk PREMIERE: 9 October 2012 “Mauser” timeline • September 2010: first auditions for Theodoros Terzopoulos’ production of Heiner Müller’s Mauser • 2–3 January 2011: second audition • 4–5 January 2011: workshop for the actors selected through auditions, led by Theodoros Terzopoulos • 29–30 August 2012: third audition • 31 August – 8 October 2012: rehearsals • 9–10, 12–14, 18–20 October 2012: premiere performances • 22–26 February 2013: performances • 17–21 October 2013: performances • 11, 14–16 December 2014: performances |
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