THE WHOLE WORLD IS WATCHING / 2007
more reviews:
"This play already is the third cooperation of Raymond Pettibon and Oliver
Augst. However, it is the first time that the musician, composer, and graduate
of the "Hochschule für Gestaltung Offenbach" ("Academy
of Design Offenbach") from Frankfurt directs one of their co-productions.
He took this unusual job to integrate the creative stubbornness of Keiji
Haino and Schorsch Kamerun into the play. With a kind of fresh happiness
the ensemble celebrates cross references and allusions in the bizarre show.
Oliver Augst accompanies a video of the first Weatherman communiqué with
a harmonica, representing the American Folk music and Blues - not to forget
Bob Dylan, whose intellectual explosiveness the Weatherman referred to. The
five songs of the show are part of the songbook that characterises the movement
in the East of the U.S.; and Schorsch Kamerun performs these songs sometimes
in an atrabilious, fragile way - sometimes abrasively and expressively. Two
of the adapted songs are Dylan's "Lay Lady Lay" and Lennon's "Come
Together", which was also addressed to Timothy Leary at that time."
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, March 27th, 2007 (about "The Whole World
Is Watching")
"'Punx dead / Vaudeville instead', claims a cardboard wall on the stage.
Never lacking the charm of a boy, Kamerun impresses with his performance
- varying from a Helge Schneider to a Bob Dylan impersonator; whereas Keiji
Haino belts out his distorted grunts in a Grind Core like manner. This is
how cool the struggle energy felt at that time. Today, it is an amusing spectacle."
DE:BUG, March 22nd, 2007 (about "The Whole World Is Watching")
"The cast not only includes Pettibon, Augst and
Daemgen, but also the legendary Japanese free-style guitarist Keiji Haino
and Schorsch Kamerun,
the singer
of the Hamburg based Punk band "Die Goldenen Zitronen" ("The
Golden Lemons"). One of them brings intense directness into the play,
the other one provides scepticism, which is a result of the clinical insight
that there won't be any revolutions anytime soon. As Pettibon finishes one
of the pamphlets, Haino kicks in with his pumped up amplifier, playing one
of his famous ear-battering, several times layered guitar solos. When the
best part of the evening is reached, he screams into an overdriven microphone
until small blue notes are formed around his voice resulting from the overdrive
- which, of course, leads to several exclamations of pain in the mollycoddled
audience, moaning “Ow! Ow!” and covering their ears."
Berliner
Zeitung, March 23rd, 2007 (about "The Whole World Is Watching")
"The five artists on the stage are no greybeards dreaming of old times, they
are not entertainers, who have no idea of history and of what they are doing
- they do not smile and push aside the marks of history. Nevertheless, the
artists do make fun of the stale primordial soup of Pop culture and politics,
which in fact cannot be taken seriously anymore. They thoroughly weigh many
things up and get a retroactive feeling for their weight.
In that way, their humorous theatrical examination of the Weather Underground
becomes an act of intense memento and mourning. The subjects of these memories
and this lamentation process are lost connections that even may be severed
for good. The soundtrack for this act of working through a mourning process
needs a brawly electric guitar, trickling beats, and brute drums, since if
there is no silence left to mourn the only place left to be alone is the
noise. The noisiness does not cover up anything; it just recalls memories
and functions as a symptom. It really was the whole world of senses that
was watching and listening at that time, wasn't it?"
Frankfurter Rundschau, March 23rd, 2007 (about "The Whole World Is Watching")
"The director intentionally causes a conflict
situation by bringing Pettibon, Schorsch Kamerun from the 'Goldenen Zitronen'
(Golden Lemons), and the noise musician Keijo Haino into the play as the
main cast;
because
three very real and very different attitudes towards the Weatherman movement
collide on stage. The divergence between the different opinions and the resulting
tension among the actors become the actual heart of the performance. (...)
Pettibon's dialogues consist of anarchical propaganda pamphlets, Pop cultural
quotes, and absurdities of everyday life. He impairs the shell of the Weatherman
myth. Schorsch Kamerun, however, is a slave of his own ambivalence. He tries
too hard sympathising and at the same time questioning the political ideology
of the group. (...) Japanese Keiji Haino's part in the production is to provide
deafening, beautiful noise. The Weatherman finally broke down by this noise
that symbolises their anger and their power. These three individual slices
result in a production well worth seeing."
Intro magazine 5/07, Matthias Schneider (about "The Whole World Is Watching")
more
Picture
Film