HEINER GOEBBELS: LIBERTÉ D’ACTION

‘I don’t travel anymore. Travelling – what possible interest could that have for me?’ These are the words with which the painter and poet Henri Michaux began his text Liberté d’action in 1945. Stage director and composer Heiner Goebbels has chosen this particular title to present his latest piece, which sets Michaux’s words to music. For this staged concert, Goebbels is collaborating with two pianists of the renowned Ensemble Modern. He is interlacing the sounds of prepared pianos with a contrasting and competing voice. Virtuoso actor David Bennent meanders through the poet’s explosive worlds of ideas, sketching images of a mysterious and inhospitable universe and shifting the power of agency and freedom of choice to the mere imagination. Through language, voice, music, and stage setting, Liberté d’action explores notions of autonomy and dependency.

The performance will tour to deSingel, Antwerp on January 28, 2022 and to Romaeuropa Festival, Rome, on September 25, 2022. More tour dates will follow.

Production Théâtre National du Luxembourg, KunstFestSpiele Herrenhausen (Hannover) Coproduction Wiener Festwochen, deSingel (Antwerp), Ensemble Modern (Frankfurt a. M.)

More information here.