Theater im Bahnhof / Gaststubentheater Gößnitz (AT) Operation Wolfshaut A reconstruction

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Operation Wolfshaut is an attempt to create a theatrical village sociology using the example of a failed rehearsal process. Two directors arrive in the countryside and conduct interviews with contemporary witnesses about the post-war period. The conversations are reminiscent of the novel “Wolfshaut”, in which Hans Lebert describes the mechanisms of collective repression in post-war Austria.Inspired by the interviews and also the atmosphere of the novel, they begin a rehearsal process that is subsequently abandoned due to differences of opinion. Theater im Bahnhof and Gaststubentheater Goessnitz present an evening that documents the “making-of” process.
The two directors focus on the village, the interplay between a group and outsiders, images of men and women, as well as pecking orders and atmospheres. They investigate the diversity behind what appears on the surface to be the same. As a phenomenon the village is, however, also of interest to the two directors with respect to their life in the city, which in some districts is undergoing a process of “villagification”. The district they both work and live in, the Graz “Annenviertel”, displays village-like structures – although it does not see itself as such. The actors from the rural group are repeatedly asked by the directors to use free improvisation to reproduce the patterns and rituals of a village. But often their personal realities comes a bit too close, creating uncertainty. The examination of village life and a dark secret brings to light mechanisms of repression and collective hostility that also play a growing role within the rehearsal scenario. The culture of avoidance envelops both the group and the directors from the city, so that certain forces continue to exert themselves.