Data Tavadze premiering latest work at Deutsches Theater Berlin
Actors and musical artists involved in the performance of 'everyone (dies)'. The show features live music composed by Nika Pasuri. Photo: Arno Declair.
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A stage production about class division, money and death debuted at the Deutsches Theater Berlin on Sunday via a premiere of everyone (dies), the latest theatre adaptation by director Data Tavadze.
Subjects of gated wealth within the realm of poverty and celebration of personal well-being with chaos in the wider society are some of the themes explored in the staging based on a work by playwright Ferdinand Schmalz.
The play is in turn a rewriting of Austrian novelist and dramatist Hugo von Hofmannsthal's Play on the Death of the Rich Man "for the 21st century" (Deutsches Theater), an adaptation to the era of unfettered private business.
Data Tavadze, head of the Royal District Theater in [Tbilisi] and one of Georgia's outstanding young directors, has staged the game around money, power and death," a summary from the German theatre said.
With an archetypal businessman of the neoliberal era as its protagonist, everyone (dies) places his delirious self-obssession on an island resisting "strangers or poverty" from influencing the high life.
Heute: #Premiere "jedermann (stirbt)" von Ferdinand Schmalz. Das Spiel um Geld, Macht und Tod hat der georgische Regisseur Data Tavadze und Leiter des Royal District Theatres inszeniert. #toitoitoihttps://t.co/ilbRCXbiEh
— Deutsches Theater Berlin (@DT_Berlin) March 1, 2020
Foto: A. Declair pic.twitter.com/gA65H5ZzYe
Tavadze told the Berlin theatre ahead of the premiere the play had a "proper dose of humour in it" despite its serious subject matter. The director also talked in the interview about a deliberately "strange" selection of musical instruments - not usually used together - for the production.
The director cast Jörg Pose, Lorena Handschin, Natali Seelig, Paul Grill and Niklas Wetzel in the 1-hour, 30-minute production featuring a score - performed live during the show - by Georgian composer Nika Pasuri, a familiar associate of Tavadze's stage work.
The production team also involves efforts by lighting designer Kristina Jedelsky, set and costume designer Janja Valjarević as well as dramatists Sima Djabar Zadegan and Juliane Koepp.
The premiere continues Tavadze's collaborations with German theatre venues that have so far included productions at the Dresden State Theatre.
Named one of the most promising creators at the 2016 Fast Forward European Festival for Young Stage Directors, Tavadze has also enjoyed festival success for his stagings with the Royal District Theatre of Tbilisi, which he joined in 2008.
The bill for everyone (dies) is set to run at the Deutsches Theater in four more dates through April 13.