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working model:
the persians in three cities

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die perser, brunswick
die perser, vienna

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2481 desaster zone

«grü500» engaged 180 citizens of geneva actively in a collective theatrical process: a physical and practical confrontation with the antique tragedy «the persians» within a contemporary model of the chorus.

the working model linked elements of the attic democracy, like the council of 500 and the chorus contests with 500 participants happening once a year, with complex techniques of the simultaneity of speech production and thinking. the participation of the citizens of geneva during a three-months rehearsal process was a practical public discussion of the potential of theatre and an experiment with theatrical practices of communication.

concept/staging/score: claudia bosse, messenger: barbara baker, atossa: doris uhlich, ghost of dareios: christine standfest, xerxes: gerald singer, chorus leaders: guillaume béguin, léonard bertholet, vincent coppey, elisa curchod (chine), jean-louis johannides, marie-eve mathey-doret, gérard moll, jacqueline riccardi, anne-frédérique rochat, delphine rosay, assistant director: andreas gölles, aurélie matthey, coordination: imanol atorrasagasti, mentoring: sophie klimis, chorus of 500/grü500: patricia aguilar, dominique baumberger, anna born, ana candelaria, gisella cellina, patricia cherubin, luis dos santos, claude-evelyne grandjean, claude gougenheim, caroline heck, catherine ming, sylvie rombaldi, anne-françoise salamin, sylvie steinmann, nathalie sutter, anne utz, carole varone, catherine willemin, anggela zutta, christiane antoniades-menge, arlette avidor, christine barthelemy, marie-louise bellini, catherine berthet, ariane bertholet-fasel, sylvie blondel, elisabeth burch, anne-marie chevalier, magdalena chrusciel, christian cuennet, annelise dinbergs, colette gianque, paola heyd, françois leresche, maïté macia-gigonzac, claire miorini, daniel polier, monique rakotoarimanana, michèle roch, geneviève roches, annick rosselet, catherine trolliet, maria lourdes uger, pia voldet, constantin xygalas, claudine zweidler, nathalie arthur, marie bagnoud, jeanne bagnoud, nicolas favre, fabienne gigon, verena grabscheid, julie huber, martin kaspar, kumiko kuwabara, chloé lepeltier, coralie ming, eglantine de straschnov, mathieu ziegler, manuel acevedo, cécilia azevedo almeida, dora azevedo almeida, laure beuchat, ariane bourjault, audrey caudy, camille cellerier, romaine chapuis, pia drzewinski, yoursa hamed, colin harris, olivier jean, claire scholtes, patricia francia, cristina giordano, christophe giusti, sarah goffinet, christina guéninchault, marian hassan, sabine lalive d'epinay, danielle maumary, christophe mayor, martine petit, christina pittet, sandra scalea, antoine schmidt, stephane soulard, corinne sulliger, sophie theven, rené aeby, cécile bonnet, thierry calzonari, sylvie dubois, anne geinoz, claire-pascale genitzon, geneviève gorra, isabelle guillot, laurence heuberger, ben hope, graziella jordi, regina joye-reginato, carole kaeser, danielle marie, marie-claude martin, barbara megroz, liliana mendez, romain miranda, jade minh nguyen, françois nicod, véronique perrin, anne pictet, mario ruggier, xénia sepe, marco, karin strescher, francesca terri, laure testuz, xénia volpe, nicole zelnicek, paola adoboli, william baumgartner soares, dorothea beck, cécile bonnet, cambyse chamot, monique chapuis, elisa di bin, dubra arnaud, nuria greub-sallares, ludivine guex, jean-paul guisan, komaromi hadrien, lisa mazzone, caroline mszczuk, alberto osorio, maya pfiffner, alberto rigoni, stéphanie rigoni, nicole sansonnens, raffaella stampa, diane suva, daniel thürler, carole tripod osorio, yvan vuagniaux, isabelle alvarez-tausch, esther beerli, gonzague bernardeau, myriam curchod-hafner, mireille david, bernadette frelechoz, damien friot, paola illuminato, rosinci lerias jeannet, amina-fethia mehida, eva michaïlova, alexandra mossière, ricardo murillo, sergio piloni, nemecia recupero, fabienne silva, elena varela. sonia zanier, marina alberti, myrtha ammann, marie-claire auger, nicolas burnan, france-lise carene, micheline cuennet, alline dedeyan, monique degeilh, georgette devantery, henri faillettaz, anne-marie graber, claude hostettler, claudine imfeld, miriam kupferschmid, alain mutzenberg, françois nicod, françois osorio, gisèle pretre, christiane pugin, marie pythoud, jean-jérôme rinuy, solange rossi, philippe russbach, claudine schaeren, alain schweri, enza squillaci, denis volery, marie juana roth figueroa

black box of grü/thèâtre du grütli - 16, rue du général-dufour, 1204 genève, premiere: 13.11.2006, 6 performances

coproduction théâtre du grütli, association genèveberlin, theatercombinat

clip: alexander könig

traces d'ephemeres, souffles de citoyens (ephemeral traces, citizen's breathings)

sophie klimis

abstracts from: publication "les perses2, théâtre du
grütli 11/2006, translation lena wicke

claudia bosse has started a call for 500 citizens of geneva without knowing if this symbolic number, chosen in reference to the number of participants of the council of athens, would be achieved. a poetical and political gesture, to reactivate the athenien-democratic project for today: inscribing chance into a logic, just as the greeks channelised tyche (chance), unrulable by definition, by integrating it into their political methods: the judges and the majority of the magistrates were elected by lot. (...)

about 180 people participated in this adventure: 18 to 80 years old, students, workers, employees, freelancers, housewives, unemployed, retirees, all social ranks are represented. therefore, too, a second characteristic of the attic democracy is reactivated by the call of the grütli: what platon called its multitude (poikilia), an undescribable mixture of differences and otherness, which resists every possible form of unification. for the philosophers this multitude marked the border of democracy, chaotic and finally unjust because majoritarian. (...)

to inhabit the words, embody the silence, dynamize the speech, liquefy the movement ... one has to specify here, that all of this is enabled by the score composed by claudia bosse. the text of aischylus has been "re-written" in a form, that works with five different tone pitches. this score, that is not musical in a traditional sense, tries to express what claudia bosse calls "phonetic thinking", and what one, following the philosopher cornelius castoriadis, could call "the musicality of sense" or better, with the linguist and poet henri meschonic, "the poetic-political rhythm". (...)

thus, claudia bosse's score accomplishes, simply by its form, to avoid the cliff of "psychologization" of the tragic characters by deferring the perspective from the ethos to the logos, from the character to the structure of the discourse. each interpretation of the sense, that exceeds the interior organisation of the text, not only proves to be redundant, but above all distorting. claudia bosse reads aeschylus like glenn gould plays bach: her "interpretation" consists above all of an activity of asceticism, which undertakes a maximal purification from all "arabesques" and overdone pathos, to let the score sound in the purity and simplicity of its original melodic line. (...)

sophie klimis teaches ancient philosophy at the facultés universitaires saint louis de bruxelles