Christoph Marthaler´s production of „Das Theater mit dem Waldhaus“ („Theatre with the House in the Forest“) which was invited for tt09 was rewarded already in March in the Artist´s hotel in Maria-Sils.
An excerpt from the director´s speech on the occasion of his 12th tt-reward.
Meeting the family: "Das Theater mit dem Waldhaus" by Christoph Marthaler at the Hotel Waldhaus in Sils-Maria. Foto: Dorothea Wimmer
I think it is absolutely absurd that we´ve been invited again to Theatertreffen. Perhaps there are two possibilities to explain that. Either what we´ve done here is perhaps interesting because we worked here between seasons up on 2000 Metres in this beautiful building with this wonderful family, or it might be that the jury completely lost its marbles up here. Because when you arrive in this height you are first of all of a relatively unsound mind.
What we did here was really team-work, even more than at other times. That´s very important to me. We moved in here once, in April, May and there was a lot of snow. We were suddenly expected to stage a jubilee event at a place where I so often got my inspiration from, from where I carried many ideas back into the theatre. And of course we didn´t. We staged our theatre. We lived here, an utterly absurd kind of life, a wonderful life. At the same time the hotel was reconstructed. It was empty, exceptionally beautifully empty, now here are sitting hundreds of people.
We thought we had to bring back the ghosts, who haven´t been here for such a long time, back into this hotel. I´ve always created theatre at places where there is absolutely no theatre – or at least no theatre as it is normally conceived.