From November 10 to December 2, 2022, a number of contemporary theatre, dance and performance shows are showcased at the NEXT Festival in 15 cities of the cross-border region. It is in this context that the Berlin collective presented its project «The making of Berlin», a show both alive and recorded.
The performance takes place in Waregem, Belgium. It shows the backstage of Berlin, a never released documentary, following the story of the exceptional life of a man who was the director of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, and mainly of an unfinished representation of Wagner’s Twilight of the Gods.
The festival’s multiculturalism translates into the public with several languages that mix : French, English and Flemish. The video is in German but there are French and Flemish subtitles to allow everyone to understand.
During part of the show, the whole audience was confused because we didn’t know if we were watching a fiction or a documentary. The genre of the show was refined when it became alive and sticked to the video. Indeed, the curtain behind the canvas of the projection opened. Some people whisper among themselves, we are all surprised by what was happening. After dropping the first production, another came into play. So, behind the canvas, there was a musician who blew in a horn of harmony as well as a circular office where two men recorded images projected in the foreground. In the background, a giant screen broadcasts the film. Thus, The making of Berlin was shown through a triple direction.
The principle of hiding one direction by another is found in the film. Indeed, when the spectator thinks he has seen something or imagined that a sound comes from a certain place, he discovers the second production with the musician and part of the film team. Then, from the inside point of view of the story, the main character, Friedreich Mohr, is not totally honest with the crew, which calls into question the entire film.
In this way, the idea of the film changed and the filming team decided to make a making of the shooting. Even if the change of subject of the film is clear, what was originally supposed to be a documentary gradually becomes a fiction. The boundary between the two genres is thin, allowing the public to make their own interpretation.
Clarisse Guyard
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