The Trotsky Rehearsal/Proben zu Peter Weiss
“After a turmoil, the public dress rehearsal of the play “Trotsky in Exile” is cancelled after the first act. Two dozen protesters storm the stage and make slapstick. The cast, spontaneously formed out of all rows of the audience, begins the performance with a dance.”
The Trotsky Rehearsal/Proben zu Peter Weiss is based on Lengerer’s ongoing research about the “rehearsal” as an artistic method as well as socio-political format. In open public rehearsals that took place at Gasworks, London (other venues include district-berlin/Hebbel-am-Ufer, Taxispalais Kunsthalle Tirol Innsbruck and many others) Lengerer presents and performes various forms of historical documents about the controversial reception of the play Trotzky in Exile (1970) by Peter Weiss. During the project at Gasworks the fragile potential of the unresolved, the unfinished, the in-the-making, which identifies the rehearsal as a format, was laid open and performed with or in front of a smaller or larger public in order to question Weiss’ differentiation between active political engagement versus the staging of topics to activate contemplation on politics: “What leads, in open ended improvisations and politically tinged happenings, to diffuse tension, emotional investment and the illusion of engagement with current events, is attentively, consciously and thoughtfully addressed in documentary theatre.”
The source materials for The Trotsky Rehearsal are presented as printed matter in various Scriptings-issues, e.g. Scriptings#34 which was printed live at Gasworks, London during the public rehearsals in summer 2013.
