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Milo Rau

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Milo Rau (2023)
Milo Rau at the awards ceremony for the Peter Weiss Award (2017)

Milo Rau (born 1977) is a Swiss theatre director, journalist, playwright, essayist, and lecturer. In 2007 he founded a theatre and film production company, the International Institute of Political Murder (IIPM), and from 2018 until 2023 was the artistic director of the Belgian theatre group NTGent, in Ghent, transforming its direction. He is known for his political theatre.

Early life and education

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Milo Rau was born in 1977 in Bern, Switzerland.[1] His father's Jewish family moved from Germany to Switzerland to escape the Nazis shortly before World War Two, while his mother, surnamed Larese, had Italian origins. His parents divorced when he was about two years old. Until he was 18, his name was Milo Larese, but then he decided his name was too romantic, so he took the father's family name Rau.[2]

He studied sociology, German studies, and Romance studies in Paris, Zürich, and Berlin, working under the instruction of Tzvetan Todorov and Pierre Bourdieu, among others.[3]

Career

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In 1997, he travelled as a journalist to the state of Chiapas in Mexico, and to Cuba. In 2000 he began writing for the Swiss daily newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung.[3]

Since 2002, he has been active as a playwright, author, and director in Switzerland and abroad, working with the Maxim Gorki Theater and Hebbel am Ufer in Berlin, Staatsschauspiel Dresden, the Théâtre Nanterre-Amandiers in Paris, and many other theatres.[4][3]

IIPM

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In 2007, he founded a theatre and film production company, the International Institute of Political Murder (IIPM). The company was originally founded to coordinate Rau's project The Last Days of the Ceausescus, but over time, its focus broadened to "the multimedia treatment of historical and sociopolitical conflicts." Since its founding, the IIPM has realised more than 50 theatrical productions, films, books, exhibitions, and political actions.[5] Headquartered in Berlin, IIPM also has offices in Ghent, as well as St Gallen in Switzerland.[6]

The Last Hours of Elena and Nicolae Ceaușescu (2009/10), later called The Last Days of the Ceausescus (Die letzten Tage der Ceausescus) was a re-enactment of the trial that convicted Romanian Communist leaders Elena and Nicolae Ceaușescu and condemned them to execution on Christmas Day in 1989. IIPM was able to obtain testimonies from individuals directly involved in the Romanian revolution (including dissidents, politicians, revolutionaries and ordinary Romanians) and the trial of the Ceauşescus, (including the general who betrayed them, the officer who captured them, and the soldier who shot them). Rau wrote the script (which was published as a book) and directed the performance,[7] which, after being cut short after two performances in the Odeon Theatre in Bucharest, premiered at Hebbel am Ufer (HAU) in Berlin before touring Switzerland at the Schlachthaus Theater in Bern, Theaterhaus Gessnerallee in Zurich, and Südpol in Lucerne.[7] It was also produced at the Festival d'Avignon in France.[8] A documentary film (Die letzten Tage der Ceausescus), co-directed by Marcel Bächtiger and Rau, includes the stage production and footage from backstage at the Odeon, as well as eyewitness interviews and archival material,[9][10] and deconstructs the play.[11]

Hate Radio (2011/12) documents a Rwandan radio station and its role in the Rwandan genocide.[12] It was invited to show at the Berliner Theatertreffen, and was produced at HAU2 in May 2012.[13]

Breivik's Statement (2012) presents Norwegian mass-murderer Anders Breivik's actual address to the Oslo District Court,[14] which were banned from TV and withheld from the public. The address was read by Turkish German actress Sascha Ö. Soydan. Its world premiere was on 19 October 2012 at the Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar in Weimar, Germany.[15] It was staged in March 2014 in Brussels Town Hall, in a Belgian premiere,[16] and at the CAMPO arts centre in Ghent in December 2015.[17]

In 2013, Rau, in some of his most overtly political work, staged show trials in Zürich (The Zurich Trials), and Moscow (The Moscow Trials).[18] The Moscow Trials examined Russia's record on free speech. According to Rau, "These trials act out or embody the real act of justice".[19]

In June 2015,[19] for The Congo Tribunal, Rau convened an assembly of 60 victims, perpetrators, witnesses, and analysts of the Second Congo War.[20] Staged in Bukavu in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the performance it entailed a mock court that would adjudicate on the effect of the mining industry on the people of the Congo. Real lawyers, expert jury, and judge participated on stage, and the performance indirectly led to two ministerial resignations.[19] The Guardian called it perhaps "the most ambitious political theatre ever staged";[21] Die Zeit wrote: "an insane project. Where politics fails, only art can help."[22]

In 2016, Rau's controversial play Five Easy Pieces, in which child actors play out the crimes of the child molester and serial murderer Marc Dutroux, became the first foreign production awarded the Special Prize of the Jury of Belgian Theater Critics.[23] In 2017, the play was invited to the Berliner Theatertreffen.[24]

NTGent

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Main article: NTGent

In 2018 he became the artistic director of NTGent in Ghent, Belgium,[25] succeeding the Dutch director Johan Simons.[26][27] It was his intention to establish a "global popular theatre", specialising in international tours,[28] and upon assuming the directorship he published his 10-point "Ghent Manifesto",[19] in which he declared "It's not just about portraying the world anymore. It's about changing it. The aim is not to depict the real, but to make the representation itself real".[29]

In 2018, Rau opened his first season at the NTGent with the play Lam Gods, based on the Ghent Altarpiece and developed with his ensemble on the basis of their "Ghent Manifesto".[30][19] In addition, he began the series Goldenes Buch/Golden Book, publishing "programmatic texts about theater, aesthetics, and politics", as well as texts about larger projects at NTGent, in cooperation with the Verbrecher Verlag [de].[31]

In 2019, an NTGent production of his piece La Reprise. Histoire(s) du théâtre (I), about the homophobic murder of Ihsane Jarfi in Liège in 2012, premiered at the Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels in May 2018.[32] It was also performed at the Edinburgh International Festival in August 2019.[33][34] It was the first in the series Histoire(s) du Théâtre created by Rau (its title referring to Jean-Luc Godard's documentary film Histoire(s) du Cinéma).[32]

Rau and his NTGent team travelled to the state of Pará in Brazil, where Amazonian forests are being destroyed and replaced by the cultivation of soy monoculture. In collaboration with the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST; "Landless Workers Movement"), and NTGent, Rau created Antigone in the Amazon, an allegorical play about the impact of the modern state and impact on traditional land rights, which causes huge displacements of people and devastation of culture. Scenes were filmed in Brazil, and the performance combines storytelling, music, film, and theatre, to illustrate its themes of political protest, state brutality, and heroism, based on Sophocles' play Antigone; a Greek tragedy transposed to a modern village in the Amazon.[1] The play premiered in May 2023, before going on tour in Europe.[35][36][37] The play is performed in several languages, with English subtitles for its 2024 run at the Adelaide Festival in Adelaide, South Australia, in March 2024.[38]

2023–present

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Rau stepped down from the role of artistic director in January 2023, although he continues to be involved with NTGent.[25]

In July 2023 he became artistic director of the Vienna Festival.[11]

Other activities

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Alongside his work as a playwright and director, Rau has taught directing, cultural theory, and social sculpture at various universities and conservatories.[3] He was also a regular guest on the Swiss talk show Literaturclub.[39]

He has also engaged in more overtly political actions, from introducing a self-declared interim government in St. Gallen, Switzerland, and calling for foreigners' right to vote (City of Change).[40][41]

Recognition and awards

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Rau's work has earned him invitations to some of the world's largest theatre and arts festivals, including the 2012-2013 Berliner Theatertreffen, the Festival d'Avignon, the Venice Biennale, the Vienna Festival,[4][3] and the Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels, has been toured in more than 30 countries.[38][1]

He won the Schweizer Theaterpreis in 2014.[42][43] the Hörspielpreis der Kriegsblinden,[44] and the jury prize of the festival Politik im Freien Theater,[45] among others, and was the youngest-ever winner of the Preis des Internationalen Theaterinstituts [de].[46]

In 2015, the Tages-Anzeiger wrote: "Milo Rau, whose documentary-theatrical explosions regularly fill houses, has managed to cast his art far out of the ivory tower."[47]

In 2018, Rau was awarded the XV Europe Prize Theatrical Realities, in Saint Petersburg,[48] with the following motivation:

A time when the complexity of the world and the events that characterise the whole planet is being neutralised by a torrent of too-speedy and superficial information, often in the service of economic and political interests, history can become volatile and confused with news items. In this context, Milo Rau's theatre appears as "necessary theatre": by putting its emphasis on events (political, social or other news items) and expanding them, it is forcing us to reflect and understand the realities of today's life, and where our politics, humanity’s ancestral violence, our society and our lives are heading. Rau's work, enriched by his remarkable literary, sociological, journalistic, cinematic and visual experience, is something that can give us hope that a vision that is critical, humanistic, cosmopolitan and throws light on the world can still be conceivable today.[49]

Reception

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Rau has been called "one of the most important and influential personalities in the European theater."[50] He has also been variously described as the "most influential" (Die Zeit), "most awarded" (Le Soir), "most interesting" (De Standaard), "most controversial" (La Repubblica), "most scandalous" (New York Times), and "most ambitious" (The Guardian) artist of our time.[38] His controversial work is often accompanied by trials and public debate, bringing him the reputation of a "scandal director".[51]

Notable reactions to specific performances include:

  • Breivik's Statement was banned from performance in Munich's Haus der Kunst in March 2013, which was to be staged as part of the "Radikal Jung" young director festival. Organisers of the festival, Munich Volkstheater, had rented the hall for the performance, but it was unable to be performed owing to "a clause in the rental agreement that excludes right-wing extremist and anti-Semitic content", according to spokesperson Elena Heitsch.[52] In 2019, it was not allowed to be performed at the Nationaltheater Weimar as part of a congress organised by Rau, under the title "Power and Dissent".[14]

  • A few days before the planned premiere of The Last Days of the Ceausescus in July 2010[53] at the Odeon Theatre in Bucharest,[7] in 2010, Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu's son-in-law Mircea Oprean (the widower of Zoia Ceaușescu, who died in 2006), forced his way into rehearsals, saying that he and his brother-in-law Valentin Ceaușescu had registered the name "Ceauşescu" as a trademark in 2008, and it could not be used in the title. A lawsuit followed, and the director was forced to cancel the show after two performances.[53]
  • Russian authorities raided his Moscow Trials.[54]
  • Performances of Five Easy Pieces were censored or cancelled in Singapore and various German cities.[55][56]

Selected works

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List shows year of premiere
  • 2024 Medea's Children
  • 2023 Antigone in the Amazon[35]
  • 2022 Everywoman, Berlin (theatre)
  • 2020 Familie, NTGent (theatre)
  • 2019 Oreste in Mosul, Mosul (theatre)
  • 2018 La Reprise. Histoire(s) du théâtre (I) (theatre)[a]
  • 2017 Lenin, Berlin (theatre)
  • 2017 The 120 Days of Sodom, Zürich (theatre)
  • 2016 Empire, Berlin (theatre, Book)
  • 2016 Five Easy Pieces, Ghent (theatre)
  • 2016 Compassion: The History of a Machine Gun, Berlin (theatre, radio play)
  • 2015 The Dark Ages, Munich (theatre, book)
  • 2015 The Congo Tribunal, Berlin/Bukavu (theatre, film, book)
  • 2014 The Civil Wars, Brussels/Zürich (theatre, book)
  • 2013 The Berlin Dialogues, Berlin (talkshow)
  • 2013 The revelation of the real, Berlin (installation, book)
  • 2013 The Zurich Trials, Zürich (theatre, film, book)
  • 2013 The Moscow Trials, Moscow (theatre, film, installation, book)
  • 2012 Breivik's Statement, Weimar/Berlin (lecture performance)[14]
  • 2011 Hate Radio, Bregenz/Kigali/Berlin (theatre, film, installation, book, radio play)
  • 2010 City of Change, St. Gallen (theatre performance, book, film)
  • 2010 Land of Hope, Berlin (Performance)
  • 2009 The last days of the Ceausescus, Bucharest/Berlin (theatre, film, book)

Footnotes

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  1. ^ First in a series created by Rau, called Histoire(s) du Théâtre; Others in the series include Histoire(s) du Théâtre II (which included a re-enactment of a famous 1970s dance performance by the Congolese National Ballet), directed by Congolese choreographer Faustin Linyekula; Spanish director Angélica Liddell's In Liebestod - Histoire(s) du Théâtre III; Miet Warlop's Histoire(s) du Théâtre IV: One Song (2022); and English artist and writer Tim Etchells' Histoire(s) du Théâtre V: How Goes The World (2023–24).[32]

References

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  1. ^ a b c "Antigone in the Amazon: Digital program" (PDF). Adelaide Festival. 2024.
  2. ^ ri-admin (24 June 2024). "Milo Rau in Vienna, interviewed by Dana Rufolo". Plays International & Europe. Retrieved 25 September 2024.
  3. ^ a b c d e "Milo Rau". Schaefersphilippen (in German). Retrieved 18 March 2024.
  4. ^ a b "Milo Rau". Schaubühne Berlin (in German). Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  5. ^ "About IIPM". International Institute of Political Murder. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  6. ^ "Contact". International Institute of Political Murder. Retrieved 16 March 2024.
  7. ^ a b c "The Last Days of the Ceausescus". International Institute of Political Murder. 18 December 2009. Retrieved 18 March 2024.
  8. ^ "The Last Days of the Ceaușescus by Milo Rau". Ashkal Alwan (in Latin). Retrieved 19 March 2024.
  9. ^ Die letzten Tage der Ceausescus at IMDb
  10. ^ "The Last Days Of The Ceausescus". dafilms.com. 10 October 2022. Retrieved 19 March 2024.
  11. ^ a b Rau, Milo (30 June 2023). "Milo Rau: "Let's continue, but in another way"". Capital Cultural. Interviewed by Brînză, Teia. Retrieved 19 March 2024.
  12. ^ "Hate Radio". International Institute of Political Murder. 6 April 1994. Retrieved 19 March 2024.
  13. ^ "Hate Radio". BFS Archive. 30 November 2011. Retrieved 19 March 2024. Date: 16.5.2012, 17.5.2012, 18.5.2012
  14. ^ a b c Pilz, Dirk (18 January 2019), "Skandal um Theaterlesung in Weimar: Breiviks Rede auf der Bühne", Fr-online.de (in German), retrieved 14 December 2016
  15. ^ "Breivik´s Statement". International Institute of Political Murder. 17 April 2012. Retrieved 19 March 2024.
  16. ^ "Milo Rau/ IIPM – International Institute of Political Murder Breivik's Statement". Beursschouwburg. Retrieved 19 March 2024.
  17. ^ "Breivik's Statement". CAMPO. 17 April 2012. Retrieved 19 March 2024.
  18. ^ "The Zurich Trials". International Institute of Political Murder. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  19. ^ a b c d e Trueman, Matt (31 August 2018). "Milo Rau's plan for European theatre". Financial Times. Retrieved 18 March 2024.
  20. ^ "International Institute of Political Murder » The Congo Tribunal". Retrieved 12 January 2020.
  21. ^ Kate Connolly (1 July 2015), "The most ambitious political theatre ever staged? 14 hours at the Congo Tribunal", The Guardian (in German), retrieved 14 December 2016
  22. ^ Peter Kümmel (2015), ""Das Kongo-Tribunal": Das Theater geht an die Front", Die Zeit (in German), no. 27
  23. ^ Tamines, Baudouin. "Les Prix de la Critique Théâtre et Danse". Lesprixdelacritique.be. Archived from the original on 20 October 2016. Retrieved 14 December 2016.
  24. ^ "BFS Archive". Five Easy Pieces. 13 May 2016. Retrieved 19 March 2024. Date: 14.5.2017, 14.5.2017, 21.5.2017, 21.5.2017
  25. ^ a b Lewis, Helen (4 February 2024). "Why Isn't American Theater Like This?". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on 7 February 2024. Retrieved 18 March 2024.
  26. ^ Andreas ToblerMitarbeiter Kultur@tobler_andreas (27 April 2017), "Milo Rau sagt in Zürich ab – und in Gent zu", Tages-Anzeiger, Tages-Anzeiger (in German), ISSN 1422-9994, retrieved 23 May 2017
  27. ^ NTGent (11 January 2020). "Milo Rau". NTGent. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  28. ^ Andreas Tobler (11 May 2017), ""Das ist für mich das Stadttheater der Zukunft"", Tages-Anzeiger, Tages-Anzeiger (in German), Zürich, ISSN 1422-9994, retrieved 23 May 2017
  29. ^ "The Ghent Manifesto". NTGent. 25 August 2023. Archived from the original on 6 February 2024. Retrieved 18 March 2024.
  30. ^ "International Institute of Political Murder » The city theatre of the future – Ghent Manifesto". Retrieved 12 January 2020.
  31. ^ "Verbrecher Verlag startet neue Reihe / Goldene Bücher von Milo Rau" (in German). Retrieved 1 October 2018.
  32. ^ a b c "Over de serie 'Histoire(s) du Théâtre'". NTGent. 5 October 2023. Retrieved 18 March 2024.
  33. ^ Ltd, Whitespace (Scotland) (10 January 2020). "La Reprise. Histoire(s) du theatre…". Edinburgh International Festival. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  34. ^ Billington, Michael (4 August 2019). "La Reprise: Histoire(s) du Theatre (I) review – compassion and curiosity in recreation of a murder". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 March 2024.
  35. ^ a b Cappelle, Laura (15 May 2023). "'Antigone in the Amazon' Review: The Drama Is Brazil's Land War". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 March 2024.
  36. ^ "Antigone in the Amazon". NTGent. 22 January 2024. Retrieved 15 March 2024.
  37. ^ "International Institute of Political Murder » Antigone in the Amazon". International Institute of Political Murder. 17 April 1996. Retrieved 15 March 2024.
  38. ^ a b c "Antigone in the Amazon". Adelaide Festival. Retrieved 15 March 2024.
  39. ^ dpa (24 November 2016). "Milo Rau wird Kritiker im "Literaturclub"". Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen (SRF). Retrieved 14 December 2016.
  40. ^ St. Galler Tagblatt AG, Switzerland, "Blick zurück auf "City of Change"", St.Galler Tagblatt Online (in German), retrieved 14 December 2016
  41. ^ "International Institute of Political Murder » City of Change". Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  42. ^ "Swiss Theatre Awards". Theaterpraise.ch. Archived from the original on 19 October 2014. Retrieved 15 February 2015.
  43. ^ "Schweizer Theaterpreis 2014 - Milo Rau". Archived from the original on 20 December 2016. Retrieved 14 December 2016.
  44. ^ "Hörspielpreis der Kriegsblinden - "Hate Radio" überzeugt die Jury", Deutschlandfunk (in German), retrieved 14 December 2016
  45. ^ "9. Festival Politik im Freien Theater. Gratulation an Milo Rau und Ensemble". Archived from the original on 13 December 2016. Retrieved 14 December 2016.
  46. ^ "Sprengstoff der globalen Konflikte. Milo Rau erhält ITI-Preis". Retrieved 14 December 2016.
  47. ^ "Realitätsexzess oder Theaterrettung?". Tagesanzeiger.ch. Retrieved 14 December 2016.
  48. ^ "XVII EDIZIONE". Premio Europa per il Teatro (in Italian). Retrieved 16 January 2023.
  49. ^ "Catalogue XVII edition - Europe Theatre Prize" (PDF). p. 66.
  50. ^ "Die Realität ins Theater holen - Steirischer Herbst 2016", News.ORF.at (in German), 14 October 2016, archived from the original on 13 December 2016, retrieved 14 December 2016
  51. ^ "Skandal-Regisseur Milo Rau: "Meine Pariser Freunde machen Dschihad-Witze"", Watson (in German), retrieved 14 December 2016
  52. ^ "Haus der Kunst verhindert Breivik-Theaterstück: München". Die Welt (in German). 4 April 2013. Retrieved 14 December 2016.
  53. ^ a b Schmidt-Häuer, Christian (13 July 2010), "Rumänien: Kafka grüßt die Karpaten", Die Zeit (in German), no. 28, archived from the original on 15 July 2010
  54. ^ "Störung des Prozesstheaterstücks in Moskau". www.tagesspiegel.de (in German). Retrieved 12 January 2020.
  55. ^ "Milo Raus "Five Easy Pieces": Kein Stück für Kinder", Bz Basel (in German), retrieved 14 December 2016
  56. ^ "Abgesagt Five Easy Pieces - Mousonturm". Mousonturm.de. Archived from the original on 13 December 2016. Retrieved 14 December 2016.
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