A Video Installation

Do you sometimes find yourself thinking, after watching a performance or a film, or after finishing a book, where does the story go from here? How does it continue after The End? What happens to the characters you just spent some time with? Did they live happily ever after or did disaster strike again?

We all play this game, In our head at least. This game is the point of departure for After the End and Before the Beginning.

Sometimes, when working on a play, trying to figure out what happened, before or after, is part of the research, part of understanding the text. In the end, we are left with a lot of ‘what if’ material that can’t be used, text residue, and stories that stay on the cutting table. After the End and Before the Beginning is all about these stories.

Where was Hamlet before he had to run back to Denmark? We know the end, but the ‘before’ is missing.
What happened to Nora after she left? Elfriede Jelinek tried to figure it out in a text she wrote. But what happened 5 minutes after the door was slammed, right after the curtain call? Or 3 years later?
What happened to Olga? Did she find love? Or at least some comfort? Did she make it to Moscow in the end?

After the End and Before the Beginning will attempt to answer some of these ‘what if’ questions.

Performers: Stephanie Cumming (Winnie from Happy Days/S. Beckett), Nina Fog (Lady Macbeth from Macbeth/W. Shakespeare); Susanne Gschwendtner (Eliza Doolittle from Pygmalion/G.B. Shaw); Isabella Händler (Blanche DuBois from A Streetcar Named Desire/T. Williams); Anna Mendelssohn (Nora from A Doll’s House/H. Ibsen); Jutta Schwarz (Claire Zachanassian from The Visit/F. Dürrenmatt); Anat Stainberg (Olga from Three Sisters/A. Chekhov); Florian Tröbinger (Woyzeck from Woyzeck/G. Büchner); Markus Zett (Hamlet from Hamlet/W. Shakespeare); Yosi Wanunu (Driver)

DoP: Timotheus Tomicek Editing: Tomicek/Strohmann/Wanunu
Music by David Schweighart, Michael Strohmann, Martin Siewert
Presentation Design: Paul Horn, Kathrin Kemp, Lukas Thaler
Make-up: Marietta Dang, Victoria Greinecker
Written and directed by Yosi Wanunu
Translation: Friederike Kulcsar
Produced by Kornelia Kilga

Theatermuseum Vienna, Feb 10 – Aug 2, 2021