German Actors Replace Water With Vodka For Play About Drinking: Hilarity Ensues
TO the performance of Moscow To the End of the Line, a satirical 1970 novel by the late Russian author Venedikt Erofeev, at Frankfurt’s upmarket Schauspielhaus theatre.
For the show, in the interests of authenticity, four actors – “as an experiment” – substitute the on-stage water to real vodka. The play features a “crazy depiction of one of the most famous alcoholic benders in world literature“.
Torben Kessler, Michael Abendroth, Marc Oliver Schulze and Oliver Kraushaar are slaves to their art. They drink and drink and drink.
A voice in the audience explains:
“At first it was quite impressive, they seemed to be giving a good impersonation of tipsiness. Then they started leaping around shouting ‘nastrovia’ (cheers in Russian) … and then they handed round the drink.
“People started clapping, thinking it belonged to the performance.”
An actor fell off the stage. Another actor toppled off a table. Actor Schulze is reported to have become violent. Medics call for police. Schulze is taken to Frankfurt’s university clinic to have his stomach pumped.
Says director Oliver Reese:
“It was seen as a bit of an experiment, sort of along the lines of ‘let’s perform this wonderful text and have a bit of a drink at the same time’ and it went a bit awry.
“One of the actors in particular clearly drank too much vodka, on an empty stomach. That in combination with the adrenalin an actor already feels when he’s on stage caused him to go off the rails. His self-control failed him.”
Reese called a grip meeting in his rooms:
“I told them I didn’t want to see anything like that ever again. It was kindergarten behaviour.”
And you thought that went on only in the UK…
Posted: 29th, January 2010 | In: Strange But True Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
