Luis Buñuel’s “Exterminating Angel” is a classic of surreal film, a parable of isolation, cutting off from the world and a detached elite. And thus potentially the work at the time of the lockdown society and the drifting apart of the classes. Or you can stage the template for the stage as abstractly as the German director Sebastian Baumgarten did on his debut at the Volkstheater in Vienna. Visual impact contrasts with an abstract content that is unrelated.
Baumgarten fragments the metaphor of a fine society that comes together for a party and cannot leave the room at the end of the evening, even though the doors are not locked. Individual scenes between archetypal figures are strung together, separated by a flurry of flashbulbs and the sound of a spooling projector. Repeated music snippets support this atmosphere of a detached basic constellation.
The impressive stage for this performative event was designed by Tobias Rehberger, winner of the Biennale. The sculptor creates a hall of mirrors with hypnotic patterns, a labyrinth in perpetual motion that dislocates and disorients the audience. The eye needs a long time to locate the room. A machine room of exalted encounters between outspoken characters.
What the space and the narration completely subvert is the claustrophobic atmosphere of the Buñuel template. Just as the originally limited playing area is broken up into endless splinters, Baumgarten does not rely on the clear core of the “Exterminating Angel”, but repeatedly intersects it with scenes from the Buñuel short play “Hamlet”.
Who are the included, who are the excluded in this setting? How is a society positioned that barricades itself behind borders, that prefers to withdraw into familiar circles to think outside the box? These questions do not arise in this busy installation. Even Buñuel bon mots like “Do you have to have everything done yourself?” largely go unheeded here. This strangling angel is nice to look at, but doesn’t really take off.
(SERVICE – Luis Buñuel: “The Exterminating Angel – El Ángel Exterminador” in the Volkstheater, Arthur-Schnitzler-Platz 1, 1070 Vienna. Director: Sebastian Baumgarten, set: Tobias Rehberger, costume: Christina Schmitt. With Alvaro – Andreas Beck, Christiano/ Agrifonte – Elias Eilinghoff, Raoul – Claudio Gatzke, Edmundo/Don Lupo – Frank Genser, Lucia/Leticia – Evi Kehrstephan, Rita/Julio/Margarita – Lavinia Nowak, Francisco/Julio/Hauptmann – Nick Romeo Reimann, Julio/Hamlet – Julia Franz Richter, Doctor Carlos/Julio/Mitridates – Uwe Rohbeck, Juana – Friederike Tiefenbacher Further performances on October 20, November 2 and 12, December 18, January 13 and April 20. volkstheater.at
