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Abstract
Over the last twenty years, there has been a proliferation of performances in Europe, mixing professional and non-professional actors or not professionally trained ‘amateurs’. Very often these actors do not appear as single protagonists, but collectively as a group. This article examines different strategies of contemporary theatre productions in Germany and France that employ non-professional actors as a chorus. Focusing on the politics of authenticity, participation and the untrained body on stage, this article gives an account of some of the different ways in which theatre and performance use amateur choruses for particular effects. We argue that amateur choruses create a particular aesthetic experience that is brought about by a destabilization of dichotomous concepts such as the ‘real’ and the ‘fictional’. We assume that a key element of this collapse – which is productive as well as challenging – is the untrained body on stage. In performances that include amateur choruses a tension arises between (1) the untrained phenomenological bodies of the non-professional actors and (2) the semiotic body of the chorus in different theatrical settings that question the possibility of political representation. Addressing these questions in dialogue with German and French post-dramatic theatres, we would like to discuss this in a more conversational style by alternately taking the German and then the French perspective. In each case, the point of departure is two examples that are analysed with regard to the particular function that the amateur choruses should serve. The examples will show that, in Germany as in France, there are both similarities and differences. They can be differentiated by the extent to which amateurs portray themselves or how they are integrated into an already existing system of theatrical representation.
Notes
1 The premiere of Rimini Protokoll’s production Deadline was in Hamburg, Neues Cinema, 24 April 2003. It was a co- production between Schauspiel Hannover, Hebbel am Ufer Berlin and Burgtheater Wien.
2 The world premiere of Nicolas Stemann’s The Suppliants opened the Festival Theater der Welt in Mannheim on 23 May 2014. It was staged at the Holland Festival Amsterdam from 10 to 12 June 2014. The Hamburg premiere was on 12 September 2019. In every city, Stemann collaborated with different local audiences.
3 For the even more complex issue of authenticity and refugees, who as asylum seekers often have to perform in order to authenticate their identity, see also Jeffers (Citation2012: 16–42) and Wilmer
(2018: 73–96).
4 In several other productions Lösch worked with very specific social groups: In Die Dresdner Weber (2004) with a chorus of the unemployed; in Faust 21 (2006) with a chorus of protestors against the train project ‘Stuttgart 21’; in Medea (2007) with a chorus of migrants; in Marat (2008) with a chorus of welfare recipients from Hamburg; in Wut (2009) with a chorus of Turkish men; and in Berlin Alexanderplatz (2009) with a chorus of prisoners.
5 ‘Das Gefühl, gemeinsam auf der Bühne zu sein, hilft. Man stützt sich gegenseitig’ (Schurig Citation2015).
6 ‘I narrowed the action down to a few key moments; the cast was limited to three actors and to the chorus, which aims precisely at creating images, and I did real research on movement using dance as a text opening, as a way to give the text as much expressiveness as possible’ (‘J’ai réduit l’action à quelques moments clefs, j’ai limité la distribution à trois acteurs et au chœur qui a précisément pour fonction de créer des images, et j’ai fait toute une recherche sur le mouvement en utilisant la danse comme moyen d’ouvrir le texte, de lui donner un maximum d’expressivité’) (Delbono Citation2004: 79).
7 ‘That is pure emotion, requiring a precise and definite gesture, a determined way of walking, whirling, a swinging head, and that round belly the leather jacket king strokes with gluttony, saying “I want France” … War scenes, human barricades, sneering choruses, a dreamlike horse, a childlike round: that’s how Pippo tells his Enrico’ (‘C’est-à-dire de l’émotion pure, qui passe par une gestuelle précise et choisie, une démarche décidée, des moulinets, une tête balançante, et ce ventre rond que le roi en blouson de cuir caresse avec gourmandise en lançant ‘Je veux la france’ … Des scène de guerre, barricades humaines, des chœurs ricanants, un cheval onirique, une ronde enfantine: voilà comment Pippo Delbono raconte son Enrico’) (Bonneville Citation2004)
8 ‘Choric speaking is work, group work. It means trying, rejecting, approaching until it sounds better and better.’ (‘Chorisches Sprechen ist Arbeit, Gruppenarbeit.
Ausprobieren und wieder verwerfen, sich annähern, bis es klingt und besser klingt’) (Weissinger Citation2011).
9 Without being able to elaborate on this, it is nevertheless interesting to ask if the form of the chorus even obscures the fact that a neoliberal practice of exploitation persists in dealing with amateur actors.
10 This aspect is corroborated by the fact that the amateurs receive an allowance that is merely symbolic rather than a proper salary. Each member of the ‘Citizen’s Chorus’ in Dresden received 50, - EUR per show, which, considering the nearly five-month rehearsal time, is an incredibly small amount. In this way, the chorus takes a relatively rigid form, that is, it should cost nothing while bringing some good performances.
11 See Vie Festival Moderna’s website: https://bit.ly/32UNgAL
12 ‘Pippo reminds us that he and Pepe have been working together for more than twenty-five years, that it is true that the initiator of this experience is called Pippo Delbono, but that Pepe is someone who knows much better than him how to share his set of experiences with others, in a very short time’ (‘Pippo rappelle que Pepe et lui travaillent ensemble depuis plus de 25 ans, qu’il est vrai que l’initiateur de cette expérience s’appelle Pippo Delbono, mais que Pepe est quelqu’un qui sait beaucoup mieux que lui, en un temps très court, faire partager sur un plateau une expérience’) (Pizzinat Citation2014: 158).
13 ‘Some trainees complain a little about the short duration of the training, and not meeting the whole company as the theatre had apparently told them they would. Some people find Pippo distant, even a little harsh and rude’ (‘Certains stagiaires râlent un peu de la courte durée du stage, et de ne pas rencontrer toute la compagnie comme le théâtre le leur avait apparemment énoncé. Certains trouvent Pippo distant, voire un peu dur et impoli’) (Pizzinat Citation2014: 151).