TicketsPerformer: David Bennent
Ensemble Modern Two Pianos: Neus Estarellas / Sophie Patey
Composition and direction: Heiner Goebbels
Sounddesign: Willi Bopp / Paul Jeukendrup
Costumes: Florence von Gerkan
Lights: Heiner Goebbels / Marc Thein
Musical assistance / transcription: Diego Ramos Rodriguez
I don’t travel anymore. Travelling – what possible interest could that have for me? – These are the words with which the painter and poet Henri Michaux began his text Liberté d’action [Freedom of Action] in 1945. Theatre director Heiner Goebbels has chosen this particular title to present his latest piece, which sets Michaux’s words to music. For this staged concert, Goebbels is collaborating with two pianists of the renowned Ensemble Modern. He is interlacing the sounds of prepared pianos with a contrasting and competing voice. Virtuoso actor David Bennent meanders through the poet’s explosive worlds of ideas, sketching images of a mysterious and inhospitable universe and shifting the power of agency and freedom of choice to the mere imagination. Through language, voice, music, and stage setting, Freedom of Action explores notions of autonomy and dependency.
