Death in Venice/Kindertotenlieder at Schaubühne

In 1912 Thomas Mann’s novella Death in Venice was first published in German as Der Tod in Venedig. 101 years and several adaptions later, director Thomas Ostermeier and dramaturge Maja Zade’s slightly more contemporary version premiered this weekend at Berlin’s Schaubühne.

As one of the most renowned theatre houses in Europe, Schaubühne somehow always manages to transform classics into great contemporary theatre. In Ostermeier’s hands Mann’s story about the writer Gustav von Aschenbach, who during a hotel stay in Venice meets the 14-year-old boy Tadzio, becomes an experimental arrangement. A pleasantly mumbling narrator, a versatile pianist, a video artist and a whole group of actors and dancers approach the subjects of beauty, passion, obsession, youth and aging with different methods.

Gustav von Aschenbach, brilliantly played by Josef Bierbichler, sings the tragic Kindertotenlieder by Gustav Mahler (Thomas Mann’s inspiration for the character of Gustav von Aschenbach) all through the play, accompanied by talented Timo Kreuser on a grand piano. Video artist Benjamin Krieg sneaks up on the actors with his camera, live streaming the images as grainy retro film on a large screen. The result is magnifying; tiny actions like the lingering gazes between Aschenbach and Tadzio, become big screen close-ups, almost uncomfortably intimate. Young Maximilian Ostermann as Tadzio is a teenage Greek good, while Bierbechler’s gloomy posture, melancholic singing and resigned gazes become almost unbearably real to watch. Both actors are outstanding, using few words, expressions or movements, instead communicating through small means.

The convincing dancers Martina Borroni, Marcela Giesche and Rosabel Huguet play Tadzio’s sisters; a whirlwind of sailor dresses childishly arguing at the beach, only to be conservatively buttoned up at the dinner table a few moments later. Towards the ending a black, giant ash confetti covers the stage, while the three dancers are let loose in a wild choreography, shoveling the black dust with their bare skin and long hair. It is a strong and strikingly beautiful image of deadly obsession, erotic passion, physicality and transience. A worthy final of a controversial story and a brave piece, 101 years later.