From
Egbert Tholl
Ulrich Rasche is probably the most consistent director in German-language theatre. He builds machines. They are often huge, monstrous rollers, multi-storey turntables, on which people walk and stomp, constantly, incessantly, to which they speak, often in chorus, often in stubborn declamation. Rasche once described it like this: “There is no such thing as getting out of the machine. When a person stops walking, he falls down and dies. But the machine keeps running.” It is easy to recognize a profound fatalism in Rasche’s world of the stage. You don’t have to share that, as you can generally have a great deal of skepticism about your world view and its aesthetic expression. But if he gets his hands on the right material, compelling things can happen. He has now staged Johann Sebastian Bach’s St. John Passion at the Stuttgart State Opera. Devoid of salvation, but full of despair.