"La mer sombre" at the Munich Kammerspiele: Revue of the enigmatic

Created: 05/10/2022, 15:15

By: Ulrike Frick

They immerse themselves in Claude Cahun's world of ideas: Gro Swantje Kohlhof, Christian Löber and Thomas Hauser (from left).

© Krafft Angerer/Münchner Kammerspiele

The Munich Kammerspiele started the 22/23 season with the premiere of “La mer sombre”.

Read our premiere review here:

Floor to ceiling pink curtains frame the reflective floor and the petal or vagina motif in the best Georgia O'Keeffe style at the front of the stage.

Is the plush heart dangling from the ceiling an allusion to the Oktoberfest, to love as the true power of heaven, or just a gender-neutral kitsch symbol?

The pot in the middle – treasure chest or urn?

Resident director Pinar Karabulut staged "La mer sombre"

The evening "La mer sombre" ("The Dark Sea"), which resident director Pinar Karabulut set up for the start of the season for the Werkraum of the Munich Kammerspiele, is a mystery from the start.

In the course of the typically brightly colored revue of Karabulut, this usually proves to be a blessing, but sometimes also a curse.

With her surrealist works, the queer author and photo artist Claude Cahun (1894-1954) liked to refuse quick access and clear analysis.

"Masculine?

Feminine?

That depends on the situation.

Neutral is the only genre that always suits us.” In this respect, Karabulut's somewhat vague approach also fits.

Even if Cahun's writings are sometimes very symbolic and enchanted, she was always crystal clear in her clairvoyant statements.

Queer author and photo artist Claude Cahun lived from 1894 to 1954

The director has formed a complex, emotional collage and love triangle from various texts by Cahun, such as "Views and Visions" from 1919 or "Heroines" from 1925.

Here you dive deep into Cahun's cosmos of thoughts.

However, Karabulut regularly breaks up their highly emotional game of changing masks with charming ideas, happily interrupting the intimate moments of the acting trio.

Gro Swantje Kohlhof, Thomas Hauser and Christian Löber play through various gender and relationship constellations in changing roles on Aleksandra Pavlović's boudoir-like stage.

They deal with each other quite ruthlessly and throw some insults at each other like "God!

Are you ugly?” around the ears.

Only,

only to shortly afterwards say clever things like “The myth of Narcissus is everywhere” or “There is too much of everything”.

Hauser, Kohlhof and Löber in their tight-fitting, androgynous costumes, with their stunning presence and their tongue-in-cheek charisma, master the sometimes quite brittle set pieces about the play with light or shadow and man or woman with absolute confidence.

(More theater? Read our review of the start of the season at the Munich Volkstheater with "The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum" and at the Residenztheater with "Angels in America".)

Androgynous costumes, with their stunning presence and tongue-in-cheek charisma, master the sometimes quite brittle set pieces about the game with light or shadow and man or woman with absolute confidence.

(More theater? Read our review of the start of the season at the Munich Volkstheater with "The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum" and at the Residenztheater with "Angels in America".)

Androgynous costumes, with their stunning presence and tongue-in-cheek charisma, master the sometimes quite brittle set pieces about the game with light or shadow and man or woman with absolute confidence.

(More theater? Read our review of the start of the season at the Munich Volkstheater with "The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum" and at the Residenztheater with "Angels in America".)