Gisèle Vienne

Gisèle Vienne’s theatre is among the most powerful to be seen on European stages: the French-Austrian artist combines puppetry and acting, choreography, lighting, sound and set design to create a theatrical language so intense that it penetrates deeper levels of consciousness – both in her audience and her stage characters. In 2018 she dissected ecstatic dancing party guests in CROWD, a milestone in recent dance history. And in Robert Walser’s DER TEICH, she most recently looked into the suicidal thoughts of a teenager – played “overwhelmingly” (FAZ) by the renowned French actress Adèle Haenel, who is now, together with Katia Petrowick and Theo Livesey, back on stage in EXTRA LIFE. The piece follows a latenight reunion between two siblings who are connected through a traumatic family history. Vienne unfolds this one moment in Proustian monumentality and makes the patriarchal socio political dimension of repression visible – with subversive humor, a stage architecture of laser light, and music by synthesizer composer Caterina Barbieri (who also plays a concert at the festival closing).