The Dresden Staatsschauspiel reopened on June 1 after a long shutdown. The “Kleines Haus” marked the occasion with a very special production. No actors appear onstage in “Konferenz der Abwesenden” by Rimini Protokoll. Instead, members of the audience take the place of the absent conference speakers.
By Christian Rätsch
My day here begins at 3pm with a tech rehearsal. Rimini Protokoll writer and director Daniel Wetzel asks whether I’d like to take the part of one of the absent speakers. Yes, I say, and shortly afterwards I find myself onstage wearing headphones and a microphone. A voice in my ear directs me, whispering the lines I repeat aloud. I am Bahati, a refugee who talks about problems with the European authorities. But right when my turn comes, my performance is suddenly over. It looks like there's some sort of problem.
I take advantage of a short break in the rehearsal to meet Staatsschauspiel playwright Lüder Wilke outside the theatre for a short interview.
Dresden’s Staatschauspiel seems the perfect place for this premiere, and also for this experiment. Thanks to the local “Bürgerbühne” or “citizen stage”, I learn, there is a long tradition here of direct public involvement in theatrical productions. Just before 7pm I finally get the chance to talk to Daniel Wetzel. We discuss the origins of the work, the technique of performance-based telepresence, and what we expect.
Will people stand up and take an active part, or will the conference end after five minutes?
Our blogger with Daniel Wetzel of Rimini Protokoll.
By 7:30 the full house is fully seated and Konferenz der Abwesenden begins. There’s a moment of panic then a sigh of relief: the first participant steps forward onto the stage and breaks the ice. It continues this way throughout the evening; the right person to speak is always found except when a person of color is explicitly needed. At this point the conference reaches an impasse. But unhappily the person needed is nowhere to be found, so his part is left out. What performance-based telepresence is capable of becomes clear to me during the appearance of Karl Heinz Pantke, whose physical movement has been severely limited by locked-in syndrome for 25 years. Here today however he is able to leap again at last thanks to his avatar, his presence in the person of a young woman, and he captivates the whole audience with his energy. Once the premiere is over I ask another few people for their thoughts, and I stay around outside the theatre for a while with the team. I realize how much good it does me after the long COVID hiatus to come back to social interaction. A long day comes to an end this way, and at midnight I fall into bed full of sensations, happy and contented.
