Berlin Adventures Part II

*takes a deep breath*

okay, well its been a while since I updated, which isn't to say nothing has happened. So much has happened. And so much walking has been done. I'll start where I left off, the morning of July 9th. It is the 13th now and its hard to believe three days have passed.

So that day I woke up and heavily excited to go see the Neue Nationalgalerie I went over to the U Bahn to head over to Potsdamer Platz. I was feeling a bit chancey so instead of the usual huge potsdamer platz station I headed one station over to Mendellsohn Bartholdy Park, just to see what was around. Boring, green industrial and many cars is what I have to say. It seems that Potsdamer Platz was once a bustling city center, before being ravaged by the wall, literally cut in half. What came after was a no man's land that held a bleak future for the once bustling center. Though now it has returned, in many ways to its old glory, it does so strangely. Set apart, and almost ravaged by its large architecture, it feels strangely bleak and empty. The towering and fututristic Sony Center is one of many architectural marvels. The yellow jagged temple that is the Philharmonie is another. And yet these strange architectural beasts stand far apart from each other, almost isolated in their vain glory. To my discontent the permanent gallery, housing 19-20th century german and international art was closed until 2009, so I did the next best thing and traipsed up to the Kulturforum and checked out the Gemäldegalerie (literally Painting Gallery).

Advertised by many as Berlin's best art museum, the gallery lies in the Kulturforum, a sort of multiple museums in one. In doing so however, you feel a sort of strange mall/cafeteria like atmosphere upon entering. The stark white lobby makes you feel a little like a schoolboy and a little like a hospital warden. I paid my entrance fee and picked up another audio tour (this one didnt come with any exciting music) and made my way through the paintings.

It was quite a collection, 20 rembrandts, a good amount of Rubens, Cranach the Elder, both Brueghels, even some Renaissance Botticellis, Mantegnas, Raphaels and Bellinis. It was a bit breathtaking and certainly overwhelming. You walked into a room sort of knowing what to expect but there was such an onslaught of art you only ended up concentrating on one or two pieces. The Rembrandts housed there were quite quirky, not the usual shocking use of light and darkness, a lot of these were his older and younger works, the fabulous painting of Moses atop Mount Sinai, quite possibly on the verge of hurling down the Commandments again had a rugged orange and gold tinge that seemed to light the painting on timeless fire. The one of Samson, right next to it, also gave us a sort of fiery moment, though the darkness being more apparent and the moment being a bit more subdued. it is right before Samson makes the girl he loves's father feel sorry for marrying her off to another. Real choice biblical drama.

Rembrandts use of darkness shocks me. Just how much of his paintings are shrouded in darkness and yet how much that offers us. If we look closer we can almost make out the shapes in the darkness. Quite impressive and makes being next to his paintings quite the experience.

Rubens's St. Christopher was another standout. Completely lifelike and lifesize, we have this torrential figure in a moment of pure transfiguration. I paid attention to the way Rubens builds his shadows, using this almost green coloring to give the body a sort of humor that lets you almost feel the warm soft texture of his skin.

Lots of other paintings, a bellini of the madonna and her child (which one I cantz tell you because Bellini made about a hundred of them) really stood out to me.

I got to the Volksbühne for my final show and it was a doozy, UBUKOENIG (Ubu Roi, by Alfred Jarry) directed by Gottscheff.




I have to say the piece started with promise. The set, which was incredible was only a series of balloons. Different colors purple, white, black, red and orange. Different sizes as well, ranging from the usual small balloon, to huge ones that would sometimes fly menacingly offstage and linger around where the audience was, sometimes being hit to one side or another.

The play began with darkness, cheesy music, and an american voice listing all the characters in the play, in English. So many characters, Jarry is a stinker really.

the piece starts in mystery, with two men behind a balloon, shadows, as a light shines behind them. The tension builds to the last possible moment. And POP, the balloon pops and we see the men standing behind it, completely and utterly naked.

They have their first conversation this way, and eventually one of the men tucks his genitals behind his legs, conveying to us, that he has become UBU's wife. The other characters soon emerge from the balloons, and the meet and greet that happens is done by micing (yep, anther mic) the voices and then distorting them in real time, creating a truly horrendous soundscape.

Eventually UBU and his wife return, both in high heels, then they both have regular heels. Both actors trade the roles, an interesting choice.

Every now and then, a balloon pops. Thats hilarious.

The piece was interesting, I guess, but I was expecting a bit more spectacle from a play that claims to have two entire armies go to war and stage. For all the promise Gottscheff gave us, what it ended up being was a very well acted absurdist farce that didnt really communicate to us the absolute spectacle necessary. I prefer to think of Jarry not as an absurdist, but as a symbolist, or even an expressionistic, giving us the bombast, the sheer ridiculousness of human emotion, but not in measured naturalistic chaos, as Ionesco is best done, but in true marionette fashion. In the end, taking the words so seriously bored me, and though there were funnier lines, it all got lost in the haze of balloons. To Gottscheffs credit I was also very tired, and also very tired of seeing theatre in another language, so maybe I wasnt in the best condition to appreciate his work.

Another thing that peeved me is that his cuts just left the absurd bear and the two armies as sort of afterthoughts in the ending sequence as the stage rotated and balloons flew everywhere. The army and the bear, in my opinion are the moments when the play really comes together. And the bear scene is among the funniest I've read. Ah well, the play really was a nice culmination of my time at the Volksbühne, and 18 plays later, (is it 18 or more?) I really do have a lot of thinkin to do...

The next morning, Leipzig!!!