FatzerBraz in São Paulo: Müller Devoured, Brecht Consumed
Many theatre-makers dream of it: to start all over again with every new play. The imaginative andcompany&Co. from Berlin have now succeeded in doing just that. In São Paulo the theatre producers have reinvented Bertolt Brecht’s play fragment in every sense of the word.
Tonight, television is here. The International Theatre Festival in São Jose do Rio Preto, a rather small city in the interior of the Brazilian state of São Paulo, is celebrating the tenth issue of its local meeting of theatre ensembles with a series of talks. The topic is contemporary trends in the theatrical arts. The festival began in the early 1970s as a regional competition for ensembles; since the turn of the millennium it blends local groups with Brazilian and international guests.
Yet, a tone of theatre like that of andcompany&Co, one of the virtually in-house producer teams of the Berlin theatre combine Hebbel am Ufer (HAU), still takes getting used to even in more cosmopolitan circles of the Brazilian theatre scene. Hence, the questions posed by the television interviewers tonight may be inquisitive and benevolent, but they are also quite critical. In particular, the stance towards the formal disorder that characterizes FatzerBraz is a sceptical one. FatzerBraz is the name given to andcompany’s version of the play fragment by Bertolt Brecht that the andcompany has produced.
Suddenly, Nicola Nord and Alexander Karschnia, the two andcompany protagonists, have lots to explain. They sound far more theoretical than the production looks. FatzerBraz is a rapid-fire, extremely playful blend of children’s theatre and political propaganda, of falderal and shaman show. All of this is based on Brecht’s rather radical Fatzer fable, which after all deals with no less than cannibalism and victimization rolled into World War, class war and civil war.
Clash over the kopeck
Andcompany appears here as andcompany&Co. Nord and Karschnia are joined on the stage by some Brazilians. They find it perceptibly easier to deal with the radical impulse of the Brecht themes; in South America, revolution and revolt continue to be implicit political instruments. This is where the discussion about the “Brazilianization” begins that Karschnia and Nord are carrying out in São Jose do Rio Preto and later in the Goethe-Institut of São Paulo, five hours’ drive away.
Brazilianization in this case, however, does not describe the deterioration of social and societal safeguards, but is understood as a growing opportunity in crisis for newly posed questions in view of undeniable, unsolved fundamental problems. In the outskirts of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Salvador, the “clash over the kopeck” – as described, for instance, by Gorky and Brecht in The Mother – is part of everyday life.
Karschnia and Nord talk a lot about “anthropophagia.” This cultural theory that arose in 1920s Brazil describes a possible method of cannibalizing the foreign. The “assimilation of the sacred enemy” assumes that only the best of the foe – the former colonial rulers – is good enough for new man. Seen metaphorically, the New World “devours” the Old, excreting what is no longer any good, but utilizing all that is still viable. The same applies to Brecht.
Rampant passion for unfettered play
For the guests of the andcompany, this technical speculation on cannibalizing the foreign is entirely normal; anthropophagia is common practice in the productions by the groups from which Mariana Lenne, Manuela Afonso, Fernanda Azevedo and the Uruguayan musician Jorge Pena are joining Nord, Karschnia and the stage designer Jan Brokol and musician Sascha Sulimma. Lenne’s ensemble São Jorge de Variedades, for instance, presented a radical and intelligently playful montage of texts and themes from Heiner Müller’s work at this same festival that could hold its own at any European festival – São Jorge and the director Georgette Fadel “devoured” Müller.
All of andcompany’s guests input very distinct ideas as well as an incarnate tank. This misshapen thing made of sewn together rubber materials is now the short-term refuge of Fatzer and Koch, Kaumann and Büsching, the four deserters from the First World War, who wish to remain undiscovered at the end of it until the world war of nations turns into the civil war of classes. This never materializes, however, for the new man is not in sight. The characters in this quartet, too, are nurturing possessiveness and egotism. Like the cardboard boxes in the stage setting of the second part, the illusion of revolt collapses. And Fatzer, the antihero, lets the others down in their search for food, yet then sacrifices himself to them as a victim for cannibalism.
Among the great attributes of the Brazilianized andcompany version of the play is its rampant passion for unfettered play with the grandiose-grotesque themes of the story. Among the incomparable quirks of the production were the great courage, energy and dedication of the ensemble guests – at the performances this autumn in Germany, the audience will get to know a type of actor that is rare in the here and now.