He is an enchanting mime. And incredibly hardworking. André Kaczmarczyk (36), the darling of the public at Schauspiel Düsseldorf, shines this season as Fallada’s harried “Little Man” and Shakespeare’s bloodthirsty “Macbeth”. He just made a guest appearance at the Salzburg Festival last summer and thrilled fans as the new, androgynously dazzling Commissioner Vincent Ross in “Polizeiruf” from Frankfurt/Oder. Kaczmarczyk also has a talent for revues with funny disguises. It went well with Alice in Wonderland. Unfortunately, his production of Virginia Woolf’s “Orlando” in the Little House has turned into an ambitious slapstick.
There is at least one more severe character: Claudia Hübbecker plays the British avant-garde writer Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) herself before she untangles her hair and becomes a lover. Inspired by her friend Vita Sackville-West, Woolf invented the “Orlando “, a nobleman who travels through time from the 16th to the 20th century, who in between turns into a woman with fantastic naturalness and offers an opportunity for reflection on the genders. In Kaczmarczyk’s dramatization of the novel, the author is something like the serious emcee of a clown troupe.
Cennet Rüya Voß and Amy Frega, Photo: Sandra Then
What is life?
The spectacle lasts three hours with rather obtrusive songs, which are smashed by a “Voice” (Amy Frega) with a golden half-mask and, as far as one can understand the lyrics, convey anxious questions like: “What is life?” what is love, what is death? But maybe it’s just regarding the show effect, which is reinforced by Matts Johan Leenders and his colleagues with live music from the stage sky. In other respects, too, the director definitely doesn’t want literary boredom to arise. Three wriggly graces in dance leotards, who are used as panting puppies, rude sailors, allegories of modesty (wearing funny hats) and whores (wearing pink tulle boas), among other things, clown non-stop through the scene.
Everything is too much, too loud. You almost physically long for restraint. The cute temperamental bundle Cennet Rüya Voß in the title role is constantly in a state of excitement, screams the text with wide eyes, is completely sweaty from the effort in her unflattering costumes. The comparison is a bit unfair, but anyone who has seen the poised, hauntingly beautiful Tilda Swinton in Sally Potter’s 1992 film Orlando can hardly stomach the over-the-top performance.
(vl) Belendjwa Peter Ekemba, Cennet Rüya Voß, Carla Wyrsch und Milena Cestao Kolbowski, Photo: Sandra Then
A guy from Queen
A bit of travesty is always fun, and in Sally Potter, too, Queen Elizabeth I, facing the pretty young man Orlando, was played by a guy. Here the heavily made-up Rainer Philippi gives a suggestive majesty with a patent bodice and black suspenders under the crinoline. With a turban and simpler clothes from the dress-up box, he then appears as Orlando’s housekeeper. This is more Charley’s aunt-style banter than a slick gender play, though. Mehdi Moinzadeh as Archduchess Harriet, who then turns out to be Archduke Harry, fans and waves his hand like at carnival.
Conversely, it doesn’t get much better. The tall, slender Cathleen Baumann, still very convincing as the Russian countess, who pushes little Orlando to her glittery clothes, has to play the poet Greene with a glued-on mustache and a lowered voice. It is very difficult to recognize the dramaturgical discourse of the program booklet in this show with irrelevant stage design (baroque frame here, artificial tree there). The fact that at the end several monologues regarding ego layers and other complexities are quickly recited seems rather artificial. Some spectators had already disappeared during the break, and the remaining premiere audience applauded enthusiastically.
The next performances
“Orlando” by Virginia Woolf in the version and production by André Kaczmarczyk premiered late due to corona quarantines. The next dates are on Monday, March 7th, Sunday, March 13th, and Tuesday, March 29th, in the Small House of the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus on Gründgens-Platz. Maps and information www.dhaus.de