KLEIST IN THUN
Connecting Principle Event 2012
13 - 14 November, Newcastle University
Directed and performed by Gabriele Heller. Text by Robert Walser
KLEIST IN THUN, a reading in a setting is an experimental theatre performance, juggling with the presentation of different genres. Where does the reading end and where does the performance start?
Gabriele Heller responds with this piece to the work of Swiss writer Robert Walser (1878-1956). In his short story Robert Walser draws a portrait of the German dramatist Heinrich von Kleist who lived in the Swiss Alps in 1802. The story culminates in the question of how to sustain a life as an artist. In the portrait of Kleist, Walser also unveils his own life as a writer.
KLEIST IN THUN combines storytelling and physical movements. The performer alternates the reading of the text with simple gestures responding to the setting in the room and the story. Performer and audience travel together from the biographical past of Kleist and Walser to the present moment.
“He wants to abandon himself to the entire catastrophe of being a poet: the best thing for me to be destroyed as quickly as possible.” Robert Walser
