Ivo van Hove brings Fleißer’s “Ingolstadt” to Salzburg
The first new play production of the Salzburg Festival 2022 is on July 27 Marieluise Fleißer. “We made a new play out of ‘Purgatory in Ingolstadt’ and ‘Pioniere in Ingolstadt’,” says Ivo van Hove. “We call it ‘Ingolstadt’. It’s a mythical city like Mahagonny: a metaphor for a world in which young people fight for their future. Fleißer is never sentimental. She’s tough and ruthless. She only shows a spark here and there Hope.”
The author Fleißer (1901-1974) was born and died in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, and spent most of her life there. But she celebrated her greatest successes in Berlin, when she belonged to the literary prominence of the Weimar Republic in the circle of Lion Feuchtwanger and Bertolt Brecht. They were temporarily rediscovered by the “wild youngsters” Franz Xaver Kroetz, Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Martin Sperr in the early 1970s. “She is a forgotten but great author,” director Van Hove assured in an interview with APA: “She tells stories about simple people and leads us simply into a gloomy, almost medieval world.”
Both plays, “Purgatory in Ingolstadt” written in 1924 and “Pioniere in Ingolstadt”, the first version of which dates from 1928, are social dramas in which the destructive power of power structures is analyzed There are debuts in both Salzburg and Vienna, where only guest performances of some of his productions have been seen at the festival and “Ingolstadt” will be shown from September 4th. The first piece deals with the meaning of religion and the church, quickly reminiscent of the Old Testament, while the second deals with attempted hierarchies. Printing is supported from top to bottom. The women fall by the wayside. The law of the pack applies: the weakest gets everything.
“In our version there are 18 roles. Almost all of them are young people. It is a youth that – unlike their parents – has no more hope. There is no future for them. The parallel to today is abundantly clear, even without any updating “, explains the director. But by that he doesn’t just mean the lack of prospects for today’s generation and the dreary social and ecological prospects. “Let’s not forget that we live in a time when violence is again acceptable to achieve a goal – the examples from Trump to Putin, but also include some new social and popular movements.”
A stage space is being created on the Perner Island in which water plays a major role. “In this room, like in a Bruegel painting, there are many figures and many situations. Fleißer not only has psychological developments, but shows the behavior of people in certain situations.”
For the 63-year-old Belgian, who has long been at home in the German-speaking theater scene, Fleißer has something very specific that is only understood in Germany and Austria. “Translating them would be difficult. I wouldn’t stage them in Amsterdam or New York.” In the Big Apple, where the “West Side Story” will be retold on Broadway in 2020, he is a sought-after director at the Metropolitan Opera with “Don Giovanni” and “Dead Man Walking”.
But in Germany, too, von Hove, who announced the Holland Festival from 1998 to 2004, will soon be given a new job: in 2024 he will take over the Ruhrtriennale from Barbara Frey for three years. One focus will be dedicated to musical theater.
(The interview is conducted by Wolfgang Huber-Lang/APA)
(SERVICE – “Ingolstadt”, based on the plays “Purgatory in Ingolstadt” and “Pioniere in Ingolstadt” by Marieluise Fleißer in an adaptation by Koen Tachelet, director: Ivo van Hove, set: Jan Versweyveld, costumes: An D’Huys, music : Erich Sleichim, dramaturgy: Koen Tachelet, Sebastian Huber, with Marie-Luise Stockinger – Olga, Jan Bülow – Roelle, Dagna Litzenberger, Vinet – Alma, Lilith Häßle – Berta, Maximilian Pulst – Korl, Tilman Tuppy – Peps, Jonas Hackmann – Fabian, Lukas Vogelsang – Christian, Lili Winderlich – Clementine, Gunther Eckes – Münsterer, Julian von Hansemann – Rosskopf, Oliver Nagele – Berotter/Unertl/sergeant/new sergeant, Rainer Galke – Protasius, Elisabeth Augustin – Roelle’s mother, Etienne Halsdorf – Jäger Salzburg Festival, Perner Island, premiere: July 27, 7.30 p.m., further performances on July 29 and 30 and on August 1, 2, 4, 5 and 7, co-production with the Burgtheater, Vienna – Premiere on September 4. www.salzburgerfestspiele.at)