KEY POINTS:
Heiner Goebbels is a well-spoken, intelligent German composer and director - so it's surprising that he's inspired by vagueness.
One day a few years back he came across some writings from the 1930s about vagueness by a Russian-American scientist called Max Black. He discovered other people who had written about it as well, like Austrian philosopher, Ludwig Wittgenstein. And he uses some of their texts in his latest theatre-cum-musical work, Max Black, which is on at the Auckland Festival AK07 from tonight.
The experimental theatre work focuses on Max Black (played by actor Andre Wilms) who debates problems of logic with himself while pottering round in his weird and wonderful laboratory.
"Max Black is a piece with a wonderful actor, some great texts from several authors and there's a great deal of sound and noise, magic and light, and space and pyrotechnics. But we try to keep a balance between the elements," explains Goebbels.
It still puzzles him why the idea of vagueness intrigues him but puts it mostly down to his unique way of making theatre.
"What I'm looking for is the vagueness of interpretation. No, let's say the openness of interpretation, because when we look on stage nowadays we see the ego of a director and their perspective on the world. I try to achieve a more polyphonic offering which I try to give to the audience. And the way I stage it should allow Mr B or Lady C to form their own point of view on it.
"I keep my images, sounds and my way of staging in a sort of vagueness because I don't want people recognising things on stage; I want them to discover something they haven't seen before and I believe theatre is an art form and not a way to replace reality. I think theatre is its own reality," he says.
Using sampling software, whatever Wilms touches - be it the spokes of a bike wheel, a lab flask, or a lamp - turns into music and he creates his own soundtrack to the play.
"So when he touches the ashtray, or when he makes a sound on an old bicycle, this turns into live music. He is the master of his own world. He's doing the light, he's doing the fire, he's doing the sound, and of course he's thinking and performing and making experiments. All the music is being done by an actor who is not a musician," he says.
As you can imagine, it takes a certain type of person to work with Goebbels. He admits there are many actors who apply to work with him because they are fans of his work but he's not sure he can work with them.
He says Wilms is perfect as Max Black because "he doesn't ask too many questions and he's ready to develop his performance within the tasks that I have prepared".
Goebbels, who creates music in the classical, experimental, metal and world genres, says he works with actors in a similar way as he works with musicians.
"For example, I say, 'Could you say that higher?' But I don't say, 'You have to think of something horrible that happened to you in your life'. My indications are never psychological. That's why not every actor is ready for it because the way they have been trained to develop their roles is usually psychological and I don't believe in that."
Performance
What: Max Black by Heiner Goebbels
Where & when: Maidment Theatre, tonight to Friday at 7.30pm
