The Top Five Letters of Liaisons Dangereuses
Despite all its sculptural beauty the production "The Top Five Letters Of Liaisons Dangereuses" is a disturbing performance about the continuity of socially constructed power structures and gender relations - from the Ancien Regime to the present day – and the violence ultimately associated with them. The colourful cloth which is unfolded across the entire stage in a ritualized choreography causes the space to wrinkle when set in motion, creates landscapes and captures the light in a wide variety of shades. Thus it makes forget that the beguiling movements are a prerequisite, that suffering, lies and misogynistic harassment are so perfectly concealed underneath - the currency of power games and intrigues and their deadly consequences. Who is really prepared to turn down the invitation to the castle - to give up the beauty, privileges and comfort of existing conditions? Who is ready for vulnerability, uncertainty and speechlessness? For grief and compassion, to make change possible when the poisoned veils are lifted?
"It is good to be a woman, Valmot, and not a winner."
Credits
Idea, realisation: Showcase Beat Le Mot with: Christopher-Felix Hahn, Melisa Su Taşkıran, Jeremy Wade / Music: Barbara Morgenstern, Mike Majkowski / Costume design: Knut Klaßen, Marc Aschenbrenner, Showcase Beat Le Mot / Art directors: Knut Klaßen, Marc Aschenbrenner, Showcase Beat Le Mot / Set design: Şenol Şentürk / Light design, technical Director: Bart Huybrechts / Slide projections: Tom Wölke / Graphic Design: Anne Kube / Choreographic advisor: Jeremy Wade / Workshop: Antje Pfundtner / Production managemet: Olaf Nachtwey
The Top Five Letters of Liaisons Dangereuses is a production by Showcase Beat Le Mot with HAU Hebbel am Ufer. Funded by the Berlin Senate Department of Culture and Europe.
Reviews
"Showcase Beat Le Mot are the masters of the relaxedly enigmatic - how their new production has to relates to the epistolary novel by Laclos, for example, is revealed ony towards the end. Nevertheless, there is plenty to experience and a nice invitation to play hide and seek."
(nachtkritik, 12 January 2024, Christian Rakow in „Achtung Atmosphäre“)
"As expected, Showcase Beat Le Mot are less interested in intrigues and details from the scheming of the Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont," writes Patrick Wildermann in the Berliner Tagesspiegel (13.1.2024). However, the collective is "very interested in the background of the emerging French Revolution and the question of what defines human relationships." The "carpet of possible interpretations" that is rolled out in this context is "visually very powerful" and - as is almost always the case with this collective - "also very enjoyable." Once again the group sets out into the unknown "with full sails, i.e. to where it gets exciting".
(Tagesspiegel, 12 January 2024, Patrick Wildermann, "Come under my blanket")
Sophie Klieeisen speaks of an orgy with balloon silk in the Berliner Morgenpost (13.1.2024). Everything is "obvious and subtle at the same time on this evening", which she admits has some
visual spectacle potential, but which remains somewhat indifferent for her on the whole. "It's like at the beginning of the noughties in Berlin, when everything was still open, but already reliable. The teeth that could snap back then are not as sharp today. But the theremin still sings."
(Berliner Morgenpost, 12 January 2024, Sophie Klieeisen "An orgy with high spirits and balloon silk at HAU")
„Of course, anyone familiar with Showcase Beat Le Mot will not have expected a story about intrigue, lust and revenge that is true to the original. But of the revolution that is mentioned in the evening's announcement there is no sign either." says Barbara Behrendt in the program "Kultur heute" on Deutschlandfunk (12.1.2024). The "casual post-dramatic magicians from Showcase Beat Le Mot" are "known for their delight in sensual child's play." - "Getting involved and relaxing are the magic formulas here"
(Deutschlandfunk, 12 January 2024, Barabara Behrendt)
Showcase Beat Le Mot
is an experimental arrangement in a laboratory, an incantation, a glass sphere with the future enclosed, a fortune teller, a prisoner in a padded cell, the pink panther with the pink paint bucket, a sorcerer's apprentice, a ghost driver, a dud, a folly and a paper wall, a blank slate, the lost commandments 11 to 21, the devil's triad, the sirens, a submarine or Jonah's whale, four clothes rails, two oil tanks, a gallery without works, an experiment without a commission, a candle with two ends, lots of tennis balls, an overseas suitcase, a night-vision device, binoculars the wrong way round, an imitation handbag.
Video – full length
Interview
The theater group Showcase Beat Le Mot have been unrenowned, non-conformist and ambiguous for 25 years. Attending their performances often holds surprises and leaves more question marks than confirmation of the knowledge of the day. Being the ghost drivers of theater history they are their trademark serenity and world-facing composure is key to their work. Showcase Beat Le Mot is a traveling stage whose direction remains enigmatic.
Question: How did you actually come up with the idea of staging Dangerous Liaisons Dangereuses?
Showcase: Someone said to us: Hey, there's an epistolary novel from the time before radio and television, without internet and short messages.
Mot: We remembered the movies and Quartett, the play by Heiner Müller.
Le: First we thought, oh wow, erotic literature. - What is more interesting about the book, however, is the seduction, manipulation, women's rights as an issue, dependence on the nobility and clergy. At that time, the male first-born inherited everything and his relatives were dependent on him.
Beat: Then we realized that we already before often produced performances about revolutions: Failed revolutions, the Great Leap Forward in China, the Paris Commune…
Showcase: The novel is set on the eve of the French Revolution. The nobility is only concerned with itself, with power games, seduction and cake fights. We imagined how the clerks and the less aristocratic are no longer interested in this decadence and are already working on the guillotine in the back room.
Mot: 1790 also saw the start of industrialization, with the factories. One consequence of this was the rise of the bourgeoisie, the end of arranged marriages of convenience and the beginning of romantic love marriages.
Le: Though men were still sitting on all the money, and the idea of love proved to be particularly advantageous for men. They drew strength from the relationship, while women were reduced to care work.
Question: In art, there is often an attitude of taking one's own work or oneself overly seriously. To the point of exaggeration, pretentiousness and sanctity. It seems to be different with you.
Showcase: In the working processes of Showcase Beat Le Mot things often happen simultaneously and many actions and narratives are equally important. This is sometimes seen as arrogance or being out of touch with the world, but it is the exact opposite. With what we call elegant carelessness, Showcase Beat Le Mot aim at nothing less than to change the world view, to say goodbye to the alleged lack of alternatives. To open up resonance chambers, trigger vibrations and leave all doors open for draughts until Black Metal becomes Colored Crispy Noise. Showcase Beat Le Mot follow the crackles.
Question: You are talking about musicality?
Beat: Exactly. Like the gradual search for tones and melodies. Sometimes we hit the wrong key, which then sounds like a question to which we sometimes receive the correct answers from society with a bit of delay.