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APPROXIMATING A WORLD A Conversation Between Wiebke Puls, Verena Regensburger and Kassandra Wedel Translated by Anna Galt
Then they do this together, music, building a song using echo loops, Wedel dances, Puls dances, both sing – and there is no lie between them, nothing false anymore. (Süddeutsche Zeitung, Egbert Tholl)
ALLEGED LANGUAGE BARRIERS WIEBKE PULS: Verena, did you have the feeling you had to translate during rehearsals? Because you had thought a lot about how the show could be communicated to both a hearing and a deaf audience. Did you have the impression that you had to perform translation work in our team?
VERENA REGENSBURGER: Not really. Alleged language barriers, different forms of communication are the immanent theme of the show and weave their way throughout almost every performance process. But there were new rules to the game, so to speak, in the team. We had to get used to turning towards you, Kassandra, no matter who we were talking to, so you could read our lips. In longer discussions, we had a sign language interpreter. I think that inevitably led to another more pronounced examination of language. Dealing with and to some extent learning sign language influenced the way we communicated in the production and gave the team as well as the audience a different way of accessing our everyday forms of interaction. For me it was a gift to develop and work on my first play with all of you. Especially the concentration that working together required – not in the sense of being laborious, but having a special focus – was an unusual experience that I cherish and cultivate in the way I work now. What I thought was really interesting was the way we rehearsed on the stage – I don’t think it’s my style to interrupt people or shout… I think you have to take your time. Once, we were walking around the room for 45 minutes with torches and we kind of got into a flow – in which we were extremely concentrated on each other, in which you were so attuned to each other and discovered something together. I think this is a much more powerful way of being creative than if I were to shout how I want to see it at you from outside.
YEARBOOK ITI 2019
The production “Luegen” was the first show directed by Verena Regensburger, which premiered at the Kammerspiele in Munich in April 2017. Although the play is not about translation, it says a lot more about that than many other subjects. Wiebke Puls, Verena Regensburger and Kassandra Wedel sit down together for us after three years, during which they’ve also shown the production on international tours, and reflect on their work, on truth, lies, perception and translation. In order to explore the (de-)construction of truth and perception, in “Luegen” an actress with hearing – Wiebke Puls – and a deaf actress – Kassandra Wedel come together. The stage becomes an experimental space for what is communicated consciously and unconsciously, a laboratory of authenticity, which invites the audience to decode, look more closely and observe. The text is based on the immediacy of formulated thoughts and in this way tries to approximate a form of truth. Meaning is communicated using words, but also gestures, facial expressions and interpersonal communication. It’s about changing perspectives and identification – not least using language, whether that’s spoken, sign language and/or body language. This production is not about translation, but about going in search of the truth and perception. The artists Wiebke Puls and Kassandra Wedel manage to do this with virtuosity under the equally open and sensitive direction of Verena Regensburger.
