LuluPoster from "Lulu"
(Slower please!)
Ladies and gentlemen, we have a learning curve. Please note that this "curve" is actually more of a ninety degree angle - which makes the "curve" more of an "obstacle resembling a wall" than anything else. Learn or get the hell outta the way, the world is going on without you!
Actually, it's been great. Yesterday I bought a Handy (cell phone) in German! After getting the phone back to the hostel and messing around for about twenty minutes I caved and changed the phone to English. Things are much easier now, except the service provider keeps sending me text messages in German. Thank goodness for German/English dictionaries. After that adventure it was off to the theatre!
The university is the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) and unlike back home the buildings are spread out all over the city. The Theaterwissenschaft (theatre department - actually translates to "theatre sciences") is in a building just north of the centre of town and hosts a black box theatre, the Studiobühne, which is where I saw last night's performance of
Lulu: oder Warum Frauen keine netten Männer liben (Lulu: Or How women can live without men). Lulu is a character from German playwright Frank Wedekind's piece
Erdgeist; which then became the basis of an opera by Austrian Alban Berg (
Lulu). All this to say that Lulu is a permutation of the character we've come to know in North American culture as the "hooker with a heart of gold." While that statement simplifies things almost too much, it's in essence the battle throughout the play - a woman in a series of relationships with a variety of men who run the gamete. In this piece the director's take involved a large number of toys - complicating the relationships between this woman and the men in her life - is she a toy for them or are they merely toys to her? The question was meant to be asked rather than answered when I tracked down the director after the show to ask her. It was a fun show and it was nice to see something I'm familiar with and could follow - there were puppets and live video involved as well - always a good time. I also saw Katrin, the director of both shows that toured to Edmonton - she invited me to watch the rehearsal for her next project on Friday (
Marat/Sade by Peter Weiss) - yay!
It's tradition in Munich to celebrate the opening night of any play with a raucous party - there's beer and wine provided and everyone mills in and out of the lobby chatting and mingling. I spent a large portion of the night alone because I didn't want to attach myself too firmly to my two friends arms. Instead I met a few people and spoke in a strange combo of English/German with them. Most people want to practice their English which makes practicing my German not an option. At one point I was teaching people French too, I'm not sure how that happened but it did. Bernd joined us later and brought a few from the
Romeo und Julia crowd; Viet (pronounced Fight), Marcus, and Edwin. It was great to have some familiar faces to chat with - it doesn't hurt that all three of them have virtually impeccable English. As the night rolled on it was way too late before we realized what was happening. I wound up walking home, which isn't a problem as long as we go slowly - but Bernd and Jürgen (someone I met who was part of the performance - he was the Lighting Operator) insisted on walking me back and they both have rather long legs. I think I made it back in record time and was actually fine from the walk - so horray! I made it back to the hostel too late to watch the boys in my room stumble back from their beer garden crawl; do not fret, there was entertainment all night long. Be it from people rushing off to the washroom or the battle with the lights around 4am (someone decided they should be on, while someone else wanted them off) which lasted about 20 minutes and it all culminated in the poor soul who fell out of his top bunk bed shortly after the end of the battle of the lights. I don't exactly know how he managed to do that, considering the safety bar along the side... Do not worry, drunks are like small children and bounce from most heights - this morning at breakfast he couldn't remember what happened or why he had this wicked bruise on his hip. *sigh*
Yesterday's moment of serendipity? Turns out that one of the plays I am writing my thesis on
Scorched (Incendies) has been translated into German and is playing at the Volkstheater while I am here! Dates work out perfectly and tickets aren't too bad, I'm going to get to see the show in three languages! The English production done at the Tarragon theatre in Toronto is coming to the Citadel's Rice Theatre in Edmonton in January 2009.
Today I played tourist - walking around the central part of the city and taking in two museums. The first was the Deutsches Theater Museum to see an exhibit dedicated to the Münchner Ensemble and Dieter Dorn - it was incredible. The last time we were in Munich the exhibit at the museum was about soprano Maria Callas; in both cases the three floors were transformed into a dynamic archive displayed for all to see. There were biographies and testimonials of ensemble members as well as production photos covering all the walls on the second floor. In the middle of the room was a round table with several screens on it - you could plug your headset into the table and watch one of seven productions directed by Dorn with the Ensemble. Each chair was labeled as to the production you were watching - I sat for hours watching his
Faust (Goethe),
Troilus und Cressida (Shakespeare), and
Köning Lear (Shakespeare). Next it was off to the
Residenz München after a long sit in the gardens first of course. Topped off the day with a beer and some spaetzle.
Otherwise my conversations with the gentleman from the first day, the one who works in the hostel, are getting longer and longer. Today I found out he's from Iraq and we spent a good half hour talking about politics. I'm less nervous when I speak with him, probably because unlike my friends he waits for me to find the words rather than tease me. :) There's a whole sloe of school children checking in right now - it's like a mob of little people in the lobby. The only other entertaining story is about the last two nights in the room. I am staying in a dorm (it sleeps 20 people in bunk beds) and the past two nights I was the only girl in the room with 9 boys - 7 Americans and two Canadians from Burlington. Three of the Americans were younger guys (no older than 19) who had just finished a semester abroad in Rome - alas, rudeness abound. After trying to be civil and polite for a few hours I caved and stopped speaking English; I'd just smile politely and reply in French or broken English when they asked me questions. It worked like a charm, they let me be. They'd talk about me while I was sitting across from them, especially about how I spoke German with the gentleman who works here, "why is she talking to that guy? Doesn't she understand he's here to clean up after us, and like not to be our friend?" They're gone now, off to Berlin I believe - it just made me shake my head. The other 4 guys were great and of course the two Canucks were a blast (the only two I've met on my journey thus far), but you can't win them all.
Germany's Flag
Map of Germany