Hanoi

The premiere of the play Der durch das Tal geht will be the climax to end the Year of Germany in Vietnam. Nadine Albach met playwright Tankred Dorst and his co-writer and wife Ursula Ehler in Hanoi.

It will be the climax to end the Year of Germany in Vietnam, which celebrates the resumption of diplomatic relations between the two nations 35 years ago: the premiere of the play Der durch das Tal geht at the Hanoi Opera House. The Goethe-Institut organized over 100 events with a total budget of 1.2 million euros, a large part of which was put into the ambitious theatre project. Eminent playwright Tankred Dorst based the libretto on the story of Percival, with music by Pierre Oser and directed by Beverly Blankenship, who caused a sensation in Dortmund with her production of Don Giovanni. It is an exchange of German and Vietnamese culture at many levels: an international production team meets with over 100 Vietnamese artists; the play is sung in German and spoken in Vietnamese and combines dance, music and theatre. Nadine Albach met Tankred Dorst and his co-writer and wife Ursula Ehler in Hanoi.

You have been occupied with the Percival story for a long time. What is it that fascinates you about it?

Tankred Dorst: It’s a long story. Percival was already a character when I wrote “Merlin oder Das wüste Land” (premiered 1981 in Düsseldorf). It was then that I had the desire to see the character again, new and independent. In a joint play with Robert Wilson then the Parzival project resulted at the Thalia Theater Hamburg.

Ursula Ehler: From the very beginning it was a very open project.

And the basis for the play “Der durch das Tal geht”, which is now celebrating its premiere?

Tankred Dorst: Yes. But since you asked about my fascination: While writing, my perspective was that it is about someone from the backwoods becoming a human. Everything that happens, happens for him for the first time. He first has to learn to sit on a chair and not on the table, to not shout but speak quietly – and also what social rules apply. I found this very important theatrically: Percival knows nothing about life and death; he is a cruel loner.

Ursula Ehler: Of innocent cruelty, like a child gutting its teddy bear.

Does becoming human for you mean becoming an adult?

Tankred Dorst: Well, even among adults there is a group of people who remain childlike; who have a childish angle. For artists, it is the bed from which they pick flowers.

From the Percival legend, we are mainly familiar with the grail story, but you tell of his youth…

Tankred Dorst: As a writer, you don’t want to do what everyone’s already done. Moreover, the grail is a big subject that would have grown too big for this type of play.

Ursula Ehler: And it’s so strongly used by Wagner.

Tankred Dorst: It was less about religious themes for me than about entering the world to find awareness.

What importance did it have for you that the play is being premiered in Vietnam?

Tankred Dorst: None while writing. I’ve written over 40 plays and always under the assumption that I am not familiar with the audience. I want to do my work well for my own sensitivities. I’ve never written for a specific audience. If a writer wants to be good, he has to produce his own world. Of course, I am also a child of my times; the present is part of my history. For me, Percival is a present-day story of a person in the present who asks that old human question: Who am I?

Ursula Ehler: The play is a little like a message in a bottle – you don’t know who will open it.

Percival is both a hunter and the hunted. Is that symbolic of modern humanity for you?

Ursula Ehler: Yes, the question of whether Percival is a victim or a perpetrator touches on the core of the play.

Tankred Dorst: The victim is also a perpetrator – and vice versa.

Ursula Ehler: Percival is an extremely active character; he wants to clear his own pathway and downright lashes about himself to do so.

And what do you think of how it transfers to Vietnam?

Tankred Dorst: Naturally, the performance as it is now is greatly influenced by the Vietnamese feeling for art, but I don’t perceive this as a problem. The story does not take place in a realistic environment in the narrower sense.

Ursula Ehler: We are curious and would be delighted if it also works in another culture.

Tankred Dorst: Of course, interest has to be aroused here in the character. But, I think the way it is being produced with actors, dancers and singers is very good. They come up with lots of good ideas.

Isn’t it hard to give up control over a play?

Tankred Dorst: It’s certainly always different than you imagined it would be, but ultimately the author and director can never have the same vision of its realization. But, as long as the play is not destroyed, I find it legitimate. However, I have directed my plays myself a few times when I had very fixed ideas – so that I could see my play performed the way I imagined it at least once.

Beverly Blankenship has divided up the character; Percival, for instance, is played both by a dancer and an actor.

Tankred Dorst: I think that can be done. No human is merely one person, but has elements of mother, father, family in themselves. Every person is somehow composed of different attributes and characteristic traits.

Ursula Ehler: It also suits the Asian theatre tradition well, where so much more is expressed through movement. You can portray far more with dance and music.

Even if you left out the grail story – did Wagner play a role?

Tankred Dorst: Well, actually Siegfried was always my favourite character, because he’s not a simple hero, but a complicated personality. The same applies to Percival: He is a blind doer, who heads off to gradually learn about life and death.

So, are you convinced that humans are basically evil?

Tankred Dorst: I think humans are cruel.

Ursula Ehler: They are not intrinsically good.

Tankred Dorst: Without ethical laws we would all kill each other – and we have to fight that any way we can. But we mustn’t deny it. For me, that is the art of theatre: to not conceal anything. We need to know what life is like, otherwise why bother writing? When I began writing plays, people generally demanded that theatre should be ideological, preferably leftist.

And you reject that?

Tankred Dorst: Yes, ideology has cost us so many lives. That is, of course, particularly interesting in Vietnam, which is still under a communist government.

Ursula Ehler: We’re also very curious to see how the people here react, for instance, to the aggression inside Percival – and to the negative father figure.

In a country where family is everything, the mere fact that Percival leaves his family is already volatile …

Ursula Ehler: Yes, we certainly would like to know what the people here think of it, but it’s doubtful we will find that out.

Tankred Dorst: The more so since at first glance you don’t have the feeling you are in a communist country. It seems more like aspiring capitalism: Everyone here is selling something on the streets. It’s like a carnival.

Information: http://www.goethe.de/parzival