When did the show "FatzerBraz" begin to be produced? Is it still in the production process?

The rehearsal-process for FatzerBraz started in June, so this work is still in the middle of the process. But since Brecht conceived it as a “learning play” it is an open process that is not intended to be closed, but an open process. Nevertheless, the official premiere is in the beginning of August in Sao Paulo and in the fall it will travel to Germany and will be shown in Berlin, Düsseldorf, Münster and Mülheim an der Ruhr – the place where the play actually takes place.

When the idea of Brazilian artists participating in "FatzerBraz came up?

FatzerBraz was planned as a binational coproduction from the beginning. We felt that the Fatzer material will be very strong in the context of Brazil and especially Sao Paulo, the city in which Carlos Marighella lived and died, the theorist and practitioner of the “urban guerrilla” which also inspired armed underground groups in West-Europe like the Baader-Meinhof-group. Their end was – tragic as it was – the reason why the Fatzer-material was rediscovered in West-Germany in 1977/78 by Heiner Müller. We were very tempted to think about such cultural transfers in terms of the ‘anthropophagic manifesto’ of Oswald de Andrade or in the artistic practices of the tropicalia-movement – a movement which only in the 1990’s became known worldwide. The relationship between de Andrade and tropicalia resembles the relationship of Brecht and Müller and the question is how we relate to them, another 40 years later.

How many people the show has on stage? How many of them are Brazilian?

We are 8 people on stage, half of the crew are Brazilians: three German men and one woman and three Brazilian women and one man. Our task is less role-playing but to work with the text in a performative way. We are drawing our inspirations from many sources and quote freely on a visual level – but the text is only Brecht

The audience of São José do Rio Preto will be the first to see "FatzerBraz"?

Yes. These are the first try-outs of “FatzerBraz” before a greater audience.

Is it the first time that the company come to Brazil?

Yes, we are the first time in Brazil. It is a great experience! We are happy to escape the tropical heat in Germany, Brasilian winter offers exactly the right temperature for us!

What the show talks about? How Brecht’s work relates to Germany and Brazil of today?

“Fatzer” is a play about four men deserting from the First World War. We asked ourselves from which war are we deserting today? Is the globalization a kind of war – some people called it the “fourth world war” – and if so, how can we desert from it? Are we part of that war and if so as what? As soldiers or civilians – or has this distinction passed away in this war? And what kind of exit-strategies do we have? Can we just “stop making capitalism”? And is ‘anthropophagy’ as envisioned by de Andrade a way of escaping. Fatzer is asking his starving comrades: Who is eating? We add: And who is eaten? These are questions not only of today, but of yesterday and of tomorrow too. Is there another model of modernity which allows difference to prevail. Brecht’s technique of alienation-effect has to be taken to the extreme.