Tore Vagn Lid (re)constructs Bercht’s “Fatzer”

Transiteatret-Bergen (Tt-B) is in 2012 on the threshold of one of its greatest engagements in several years: The (re)construction and the Nordic premiere of Bertolt Brecht’s myth-ridden Fatzer “complex” (or Brecht’s fragments for “Der Untergang des Egoisten Johann Fatzer”). Our current Fatzer version has been prepared and worked on intensively over several years and will in practice emerge as a complete and totally new piece (!) by Bertolt Brecht when it is set to premiere during the 2012 Bergen Festival. The performance will later be shown at Nationaltheatret (Oslo), which is our co-producer together with Rogaland Teater and Arts Printing House (Vilnius).

From now on
And for a long time
You will see no  more victors in your world
Only the vanquished

(Fatzer)

Brecht described his writings for the play about ”Johann Fatzer, the Egoist” as one of the most beautiful he had ever created, but he was never finished. Brecht left behind about 400 pages with sketches and fragments, chorus parts and texts asking if the hunt for personal pleasure threatens social relations and solidarity.

The original tale, or rather the tales about ” The Fall of Johann Fatzer, the Egoist” are set in the later days of the First World War: Encouraged by their charismatic leader, Johann Fatzer, a small ”team” of four soldiers deserts from a desperate and weakening front-line. At their cramped hideout the outlawed soldiers are waiting for a socialist revolution – that never occurs. As all hope is gone – the political struggle becomes an existential struggle– and the waiting becomes a struggle for life. One of Brecht’s most brutal and potent sketches, created in an existential conflict between political commitments and individual self – realization, between pleasure and responsibility, sexuality and solidarity.

This will be the third time Tore Vagn Lid and Tt-B embark upon the unknown sides of Brecht’s authorship. The first two attempts gained distinction and resulted in an invitation – as the first Norwegian theatre project ever – to the Salzburg Festival with “Die Massnahme” (see critics below), and for ” Mann=Mann” TVL / Transiteatret-Bergen was awarded the Hedda Prize (The National Theatre Awards Norway) in 2008.

Premiere will take place at:

Bergen International Festival May 25 th 2012 – 19:30

(Further dates in May 2012: 26th 19:30, 27th 18:00, 28th 19:30, 29th 19:30, 30th 19:30)

Tickets and travel information here

Please follow our blog for updated information as we go along with the production.

Fatzer is produced by Transiteatret-Bergen in Co-production with Bergen International Festival, Nationaltheatret, Rogaland Teater and Arts Printing House (Vilnius)

Reviews “Die Massnahme”

Nachtkritik.de:

“Change the world, it needs it!” is what the text says. One could also say: “Change the theatre, it needs it!” In Bergen the process has already started.” On Die Massnahme in Bergen, Dr. Dirk Pilz, critic and editor of Theater der Zeit (Berlin)

Die Welt:

“The production comes from Bergen, directed by the 35 year old Norwegian, Tore Vagn Lid. We do not see a the work of a journeyman, but rather that of a young master. “He doesn’t treat “Die Massnahme” as a doctrinaire reading drama, but rather as what it is: Thanks to Eisler’s thrilling oratory, an ideological thought experiment on mass and power, the individual and society. “