Nachtland

“Nachtland’, a German neologism evoking a place of eternal darkness, is also the title of a disturbing and scathing work. A critical reflection on the convictions, coexistence and indignation in today’s Europe.

The story is set in present-day Germany. Nicola and Philipp clear out their late father’s house and discover an old painting hidden in the loft. The painting depicts a Viennese street scene from the 1920s, painted by Adolf Hitler. So, things get complicated.

Von Mayenburg’s text plunges us into a quagmire of dubious beliefs and reasoning, from which everyone is desperately trying to escape. And it does so with a deeply unsettling sense of humour, which, just as it makes you burst out laughing, also makes you grimace.

The theatre collective tg STAN (which is an acronym of Stop Thinking About Names), founded in 1989, is a regular presence in the Autumn Festival. In 2022, during their latest visit as part of this exhibition, they presented Infidèles, based on a text by Ingmar Bergman, and Dances for an actress, a unique collaboration between Jolente De Keersmaeker (sister of the renowned choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker) and Jérôme Bel, himself a choreographer and dancer.

“Night has fallen in the West; no morning star will rise again, for now it is dark, a land of night”

Nachtland. Marius Von Mayenburg