The Silver Prince
During the preparation of our production "TRIAS - The Triadic Ballet"
we studied the era of Bauhaus, its time and impact, which also led us to do
research on its founder and long-time director: the architect Walter Gropius.
Walter Gropius´ Bauhaus colleagues nicknamed him "The Silver Prince".
This had to do with his grey hair in early age already and it also described
his noblesse in appearance.
Walter Gropius was the founder of the Bauhaus and from 1919 to 1928 its director
as well. Those nine years are the frame of this new production by THEATER DER
KLÄNGE, the THEATRE OF SOUNDS. Nine years, that were characterized by political
squabbles around the foundation of this cultural institution for arts, crafts
and architecture, by the struggles implementing its innovative ideas and furthermore
developing a curriculum to bring them to life. In Gropius´ private life,
these years were also characterized by the end of his first and the beginning
of his second marriage.
"The Silver Prince - Nine Views On Walter Gropius And The Bauhaus"
is a theatre play with a multi-medial conception. It reflects nine years of
work that Walter Gropius invested in the Bauhaus in Weimar and later in Dessau.
The play shows Walter Gropius in the different phases of this era, each presented
by the reference person, who - in the respective phase - was closest to him.
Gropius is therefore presented from varying angles, thus quite differently.
The various narrators, embodied by the ensemble of this play, are the historic
characters Max Thedy, Hans Groß, Johannes Itten, Alma Mahler, Ise Gropius,
Oskar Schlemmer, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Fritz Hesse und Hannes Maier - opponents,
loyal staff members, wives, politicians and institutional successors.
Social and/or artistic vision, political squabbles and intrigues, love, enthusiasm
for the idea versus burnout and depression, being Avantgarde versus quickly
turning into being out-dated - many themes are reflected in these views on the
person of Walter Gropius, reason why this play is subtitled "Nine Views
On Walter Gropius And The Bauhaus".
The altogether 30 scenes present nine years of Bauhaus under Walter Gropius.
They were not chronologically arranged, but put together like a mosaic. In flying
changes - openly on stage - the six actors of this play slip into altogether
ten main and numerous minor roles. Their stage background, a video scenography
was produced specifically for this play. It structures the mosaic, suggests
rooms and periods of time and provides further background information.
Whoever wants to learn something about Bauhaus in Weimar and Dessau during the
exciting time of its founder and long-standing director, this play will give
a compact insight. It concentrates less on the artistic and architectural myth
that Bauhaus represents but wants to be more of a portrait of this era, a portrait
of a visionary and controversial institution during the Weimar Republic.
It is surprising how contemporary all this feels like in this almost classical
dialogue theatre play!
The text for this production will also be the basis for the creation of a new
radio drama / audio book that we will publish in 2018.
"The Silver Prince" is the first theatre production and the first
radio drama about this exciting subject of German history. It also looks into
the significance and the value of modernity for our time.
