A Swiss Must Sea

I don’t make the sort of theatre that’s intended to change the world. I would never be able to do that. I want to awaken something in people.
Christoph Marthaler


I knew of Christoph Marthaler’s reputation through years of sniffing around the great festivals and theatres of Europe, but his productions have always eluded me. Who was this man that made theatre through music? Who was said to create a performance atmosphere entirely unique in Europe today? I could hear the standing ovations from Paris to Berlin to London but I never seemed to catch him. Finally, a 30 minute walk from where I live in inner city Sydney, Marthaler will present his latest production as part of the 2007 Sydney Festival. I'll get to meet his work, with the rest of Australia, for the first time.

The arrival of Marthaler’s epic Seemannslieder to Sydney shores marks the latest instalment of great theatre makers on festival shores - following Artistic Director Fergus Linehan's previous exports, Cheek by Jowl’s Twelfth Night and Robert Lepage’s The Andersen Project.

There is often a mythology around the great theatre directors of the world, from Brook to Donnellan to Mnouchkine to Lepage, their influences span far and wide. Marthaler, sometimes dubbed the "bad boy of the Swiss theatre", is no different.

His Seemannslieder, which means Sailor Songs, brings to life the stories of a Dutch port town based on Herman Heijermans’ classic, Op Hoop Van Zegen (God Help Us). The production explores the lives of everyday people that live on the dykes of Holland. All of them are subject to the powers of nature, at the whim of their environment and the sea. It is women waiting for their men to come back. It is men lost to the sea. Using Joseph Conrad and Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman as a backdrop, Marthaler has created a theatrical event that could be called a meditative spectacle.

The characters in the production, says dramaturg Paul Slangen, are “between two worlds...they are imprisoned between past and future, but have no clear view of the situation they find themselves in because it is constantly changing. While the ship is making its journey, all that remains for them to do is to amuse themselves with each other and kill time while waiting for things which may never happen and take their leave from a past that may after all remain in their lives.”

As with many of life (and art's) important decisions, the original concept for Marthaler’s Seemannslieder was borne in a pub. The director was chatting with his good friend Johan Simons, a director from Holland, and a deal was struck - if Simons came to Marthaler's home turf of Switzerland, he must create a production based on the mountains. Johan agreed, but only if the Swiss director would reciprocate the offer by travelling to the Netherlands to make a production about the sea.

Marthaler is in fact renowned for hanging out in pubs, and similar spots where he can observe 'the lives of the lonely'. Stefanie Carp, another dramaturg on Seemannslieder, says Marthaler considers himself a director of the ‘meantime’, where “something has concluded and something new has not yet begun.” Adds Slangen, "He deliberately seeks out unspectacular places where time seems to stand still and the same rituals are eternally repeated. Nothing ever happens until one single incident for a moment changes the room into a place full of vitality and energy." This is the essence of his theatre.

Seasoned Flemish actor Chris Nietvelt worked with Marthaler for the first time when she joined the cast of Seemannslieder. She calls it the most unique experience of her career. “It was the ultimate, how do you say, ensemble. For the first time, I realised what it is to function as a group.”

Nietvelt was able to give some insight into the intricacies of Marthaler's working method. He puts his performers through their paces with two hours of singing each day, pausing to prepare them elaborate meals. Rehearsals consist of improvisation with extracts of the script using props. Through improvisation the actors are encouraged to discover characters in small interactions and scenarios. For ten weeks they discover stories on a set created by long time Marthaler collaborator Anna Viebrock, using a mask, an umbrella, a coat - anything that is in the room. For ten weeks that is all they do.

A former oboe player for orchestras in Zurich and Paris, Marthaler believes that music is key to process and product alike. Says Nietvelt, "He is always working with music. He’s not in the text, but he’s looking for the music in the words. Bringing an atmosphere where you float with the rhythm of intensity."

Three days out from opening night with a range of improvised five minute scenes and countless songs, Marthaler produces a large script with the production order. Using the setting of a pub, a passenger terminal and a ship, the show intricately links the stories of the characters through song and physicality. This is the first time that the actors have any idea of how the production will look and feel.

Audiences in France, Germany and Holland, where Seemannslieder has previously moored, have been overwhelmed. Nietvelt says crowds immediately recognise themselves and people they know in the production. “They are people waiting, people longing, people who have lost things. You can recognise all of them”.

For many, Seemannslieder (performed, somewhat appropriately, on the edge of the city's harbour), will be the theatrical highlight of the Sydney Festival.