1 January 2022
Review (en)

Liberté d'action - reviews / English translations

Heiner Goebbels makes words dance...et.al.

New Play: Heiner Goebbels, David Bennent and Ensemble Modern in Liberté d’action Heiner Goebbels makes words dance [...] Michaux‘s texts evoke an independence, are up for demarcation, are ‚against‘. To carve out these characteristics, Goebbels brings on stage one of the most concise voices you can imagine: David Bennent. He performs those lines with unbelievable intensity and vehemence, but he can also thoughtfully and quietly put those syllables like pearls on a string. He creates a sort of ballet through the increased intensity and the interplay of text, music and light. Salzburger Nachrichten A Highlight at Vienna Festwochen The stage design with its numerous microphones and movable walls looks like the witch’s kitchen of a manic music professor. All that is – as often with Goebbels – quite funny and at the same time musically highly elaborated. Sabine Fuchs, Junge Welt At the Sound Studio This triangular constellation creates dialogues between the two prepared pianos communicating with each other or with Bennent‘s voice. In some ways his voice becomes a third instrument when Bennent replays pre-recorded texts (in German and French) at different speeds or when he changes the microphones. This strange match of sounds and languages has a peculiar magic. News, Austria A perfect Gesamtkunstwerk - captivating sound questions on deeply human emotions The jewels string together like a precious pearl necklace. Precisely and fascinatingly. No, you don’t have to understand. Every spectator has the freedom to make sense of it, to create his/her own story. The precious language prevails, though. Beyond this, all borders are being perfectly transcended: word and sound, image and stage, light and darkness, presentation and perception fuse to a unity, a Gesamtkunstwerk, which offers more questions than answers. Isn’t that the duty of art? Yes, it looks like it, definitely ! Peter Jarolin, Kurier Inside the engine room of postwar Europe - A fulminant first night Between oscilloscope, microphones and tape recorder David Bennent presents a playful self-research and awareness [...] speaking about his nightmares, describing the night as a cubical space. Florian Baranyi, ORF A new mysterious play by Heiner Goebbels Fascinating how the actor works with the language: Bennent articulates the German and French words crystal clear, and while speaking he keeps a distance to what was said - often astonished about what he produced himself. The text becomes somehow luminescent, offers a meaning, which reaches out beyond the sense of the word. The sounds seem three dimensional. The evening is hard to grasp, not because the things are too complex, but because they are peculiar in the best sense. Liberté d'action doesn’t speak of the obvious, but of the in-between. Stefan Arndt, Hannoversche Allgemeine

on: Liberté d'action (Music Theatre)