"Backstage" – Iron Curtain

"With our work for Theater Akzent we wanted to create an extension both in terms of content as well as functionality; functionally we enhanced the iron curtain by adding an animated tableau whereas with regard to content we made it possible to take a look behind the scenes – at the sound engineers, the stage hands, the office staff etc. The new curtain is about secrets, about all the things going on behind and around the stage." Helmut & Johanna Kandl

Video Role Playing

36 minutes of theatre atmosphere filmed by Arne Hector and accentuated with a soundtrack played on the piano in one take by Michael Klaar, i.e. live as it were.

The film is primarily about the seductive power of masks, costumes and role playing. On stage we see the members of Theater Akzent’s (Backstage) staff: members of the management, stage and audio engineers, people from the secretariat, lighting technicians, the accounting and marketing staff, the box office personnel and the cleaning team. Helmut and Johanna Kandl make dreams come true: Everyone can choose the role he or she wants to play in the film. We encounter Prince Orlofsky from the Fledermaus, the Count in Schnitzler’s Reigen, a passionate Carmen and a cheeky Pippi Longstocking, a sinister Mephisto, Fortuna, the goddess of fortune, Oberon, the fairy king, and ultimately King Lear’s daughters Goneril, Regan and Cordelia.
The result is a dazzling combination of documentation and imagination, an aesthetically touching statement about the world and a very particular medial modification of reality. The film Rollenspiel shows no less than life itself and tells of the secret yearnings driving us and keeping us alive.

Text Brigitte Huck
Zitierte Regieanweisungen

 
Video - Backstage

2006-20016 – „Backstage“ is a silent film in black and white which takes a look behind the scenes – at the engineering, the work done by the stage hands, the administration …
 

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