The Beethovenfest is a place for all people: We create special concert experiences for and with local communities that incorporate their concerns and realities. The artist collective Un-Label is developing an inclusive music theatre piece about Schubert’s »Winterreise« for Beethovenfest 2024.
»Fremd bin ich eingezogen, fremd zieh’ ich wieder aus.« (»Stranger I have come, stranger I go out again.«) Icy worlds of loneliness surround the wandering figure in Franz Schubert’s song cycle »Winterreise«. The new project »24 Levers to Shift the World – Notes from ›Winterreise‹« by the Un-Label Performing Arts Company delves into these emotional worlds. The organisation has been working for ten years to establish inclusive theatre structures for a mixed-abled ensemble, i.e. artists with and without disabilities. Diversity and accessibility are the collective’s standards – in front of, behind and on stage, for performers and audiences alike. Nils Rottgardt, artistic director of Un-Label, always has different disability perspectives in mind.
Four performers with and without disabilities will tackle Schubert’s work. »The ensemble comes from very different artistic backgrounds for this development process«, says Nils Rottgardt. Toni Ming Geiger and Barbara Schachtner come from the world of music, Jonas Relitzki is an actor and Leonard Grobien works as a filmmaker and actor. They bring their individual aesthetic approaches to the interdisciplinary project. Nils Rottgardt explains: »The performers use their singing voices according to their respective skills. We use Schubert’s composition, but also the texts by Wilhelm Müller on which it is based, as material that all four sing and play in different variations.«
Friederike Blum was brought into the team for the scenic realisation of this experimental approach. The young music theatre director recently received the prestigious Götz Friedrich Prize for Young Directors.
Friederike Blum emphasises: »The humanity of ›Winterreise‹ speaks to many people.« The human message of the cycle is important to her as a starting point for the work: »The radical nature of the work also lies in a certain honesty with oneself. This basic experience of being alone as a human being – with oneself, with one’s own emotional world – is what interests us. We start from the personal experiences of the four performers.« The concept is put together piece by piece in intensive workshop phases. Associations and reactions of the performers to the material are also incorporated, »aiming for a collage-like result«, says Friederike Blum.
Un-Label follows the »Aesthetics of Access« in its projects: accessibility is woven into the work as an artistic tool from the outset. This can include elements of artistic audio description, easy language or sign language. They are equally important as music, light and voice. »Our stage landscape creates access to classical music from a present«, says Nils Rottgardt. »We want to appeal to as many people as possible: People who have never heard ›Winterreise‹ before, but also an audience with previous experience. That’s another reason why this production will be accessible for many disability perspectives.« The artistic freedom enables inclusion and participation on a new level.