“Can you hate a country?” – Milo Rau stages “William Tell”

“EVERYONE IS WILLIAM TELL”
MILO RAU STAGES THE SWISS NATIONAL PLAY

 

The plays of the Swiss Milo Rau have already been seen in over 30 countries. The next stop for Rau’s new play “The Interrogation” is Paris, “Family” travels to Madrid next week, “Grief and Beauty” tours Belgium and Holland again, while a showing of a wide variety of Rau’s films and actions (The New Gospel, Orestes in Mosul or School of Resistance) has just ended in New York.

 

Now Rau is returning to his homeland for the first time since “The 120 Days of Sodom” (2017) for a new production! Since two weeks, the director and his team are rehearsing the Swiss national play “William Tell”. The premiere will take place on 23 April at Schauspielhaus Zurich. At a press conference, they gave first insights into the planned production, which will feature 10 amateurs on stage in addition to five professional actors (watch the full conference here).

 

Among others, a former forced labourer of the Swiss company Bührle (picture above), a hunter, a disability rights activist, an officer or a nurse will be part of Rau’s “Volkstell” (“People’s Tell”). “Self-confidently, these people stand on stage, each one a Tell,” says the “hippest theatre maker in Europe” (Blick) in a column that is published bi-weekly during the whole rehearsal period.

 

“For Rau, theatre is a process, a path that begins with social and political research, then leads through various artistic experiments and actions to culminate on stage”, Swiss newspaper NZZ writes. The premiere will be preceded by a theatrical marriage in Zurich’s Wasserkirche (6 April), as well as a vernissage (20 April) of “deplorable works of art” liberated from the Bührle art collection – including works by French artist Claude Monet or Swiss artist Mirjam Cahn (picture below).

 

NEWS

 

  • “Exploring the tragic mind” – Milo Rau’s Masterclass at Venice Biennale is open for applications

  • A holistic art practice – an essay film on Milo Rau’s work at the Ghent city theatre.

  • “What would Jesus preach today?” – “The New Gospel” a. o. in Rau’s hometown St.Gallen and on ARTE.

  • “No war!” – Milo Rau co-signs the open letter Der Appell