Ah, those wacky groups of German
theatre-makers, deconstructing everything they lay hands on! What will
they get up to next – doing
King Lear
with their own fathers and punctuating it with renditions of Frank and
Nancy Sinatra’s “Somethin’ Stupid”? Well, it’s funny you should say
that… Berlin-based company She She Pop do indeed investigate the
relevance of Shakespeare’s generational conflicts and deals – riches
for love – by inviting their septuagenarian dads onstage with them and
examining both general aspects of father/daughter relationships
(Sebastian Bark counts as an honorary daughter) and the particularities
of the families here present.
Although the piece is now five years old, the oldsters generally
maintain an air of spontaneity and engagement, even if hard pressed
when wearing headphones to repeat their own words exactly in several
sequences apparently culled verbatim from the rehearsal process. Most
winning is Bark’s father Joachim, a deadpan ironist. Ilia
Papatheodorou’s father Theo is more ambivalent about the company’s
approach, and Peter Halmburger (father of Fanni) remains largely silent
except when drawing on his experience as an architect to discuss how
Lear might best ration his wealth to his daughters or how fit into
their homes.
The company at once perform and parody this kind of pseudery, well
aware of the absurdity of their graphs and diagrams (and at one point a
dance sequence to a Dolly Parton number) to illustrate aspects of the
Lear situation. Yet gradually they push beyond the ridiculous and back
round into real insight. Theo’s worries about personal dignity, and an
unsettling sequence in which the company strip their fathers and don
their clothes, suggest that Lear’s demands for respect are not simply
arrogant but spring from a common need for indulgence, for the agreed
pretence of power as the real thing diminishes in old age. Daughterly
love becomes a matter of forgiveness and forbearance, and the
Papatheodorous’ reprise of “Somethin’ Stupid” brings out the familial
affection which underlies the weirdness of father and daughter duetting
on such a song. Two uninterrupted hours of this is a bit much, but
King Lear itself is hardly a
quickie. It is fitting that this should be one of the opening offerings
of this year’s London International Festival of Theatre, since LIFT has
done so much to acquaint London audiences with work like this.
Written for the Financial
Times.