Dossier - Key Performance

Gisèle Vienne _ DACM
Production and distribution :
Key Performance, Sankt Eriksgatan 84, 11362 Stockholm (SE)
Koen Vanhove T +46 760 494 293
koen@keyperformance.se / www.keyperformance.se
General management & management of the productions :
Bureau Cassiopée
211 rue Saint Maur 75010 Paris
Tel + 33 (0)1 46 33 37 68 – Email bureau.cassiopee@free.fr

Photo Antoine Masure

KINDERTOTENLIEDER
Created by Gisèle Vienne
Texts and dramaturgy by Dennis Cooper
Music by Stephen O’Malley, Peter Rehberg / KTL
Lights by Patrick Riou
Conception robots by Alexandre Vienne
Creation dolls by Raphaël Rubbens, Dorothéa Vienne-Pollak, Gisèle Vienne, assisted by Manuel
Majastre
Creation wood masks by Max Kössler
Make-up by Rebecca Flores
Hairdressing dolls by Yury Smirnov
Texts traduced by Laurence Viallet
Performed by and created in collaboration with Jonathan Capdevielle, Margrét Sara Gudjónsdóttir,
Guillaume Marie, Anja Röttgerkamp or Anne Mousselet and Jonathan Schatz.
With the help of the technical staff of the Quartz – Scene nationale de Brest:
Technical director for the creation: Nicolas Minssen
General manager: Laurent Matignon
Stage manager: Christophe Le Bris or Christophe Tocanier
Sound manager: Kenan Trevien
Associate producer: DACM
With the collaboration of the Quartz - Scene nationale de Brest (Gisèle Vienne associate artist from
2007 to 2011)
Coproduction : Le Quartz - Scène nationale de Brest, Centre, Chorégraphique National de Franche-
Comté à Belfort dans le cadre de l’accueil-studio, Centre National de danse contemporaine d’Angers,
Les Subsistances/ 2007/ Lyon
With the support of the Drac Rhône-Alpes / Ministère de la Culture et de la communication, of the
Région Rhône-Alpes, of the Conseil Général de l’Isère, of the town of Grenoble, of Dicream / Ministère
de la Culture et de la Communication and of Etant donnés, The French-American Fund for the
Performing Arts, a Program of FACE.
With the support of the Centre Chorégraphique National de Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon and
Point Ephémère in Paris.
Thanks to Les Ateliers de construction du Théâtre de Grenoble, Didier Boucher, Patric Chiha, Etnies,
Simone Hoffmann, Antoine Masure, Minijy/Clara Rousseau, Séverine Péan, Sophie Metrich, le
Théâtre de l’Odéon – Paris, Jose Enrique Ona Selfa for the costumes Loewe, Troubleyn/ Jan Fabre et
Mark Geurden, Enrique Urrutia, Remy Vidal, Alexandre Vienne, Jean-Paul Vienne et Esther Welger-
Barboza
The company DACM is supported by the Drac Rhône-Alpes / Ministère de la culture et de la
communication, Région Rhône-Alpes, and Institut français for international tour.

THE FRONTIERS BETWEEN REPRESENTATION AND REALITY
A ceremony celebrating the horrifying: the march of the Perchten
In order to tackle the issue of the shift from fiction to reality in the expression of fantasies, I have
chosen to focus on one type of performance, the Austrian custom of the “Perchten”, which has gone
through many precarious interpretations and even ideological hijackings.
“Perchten” are creatures symbolising fears and anxieties. They appear each year at the
beginning of January to chase evil demons away and to steal cursed souls as a punishment for the
sins of their owners. This custom was alive and well throughout the country until the Inquisition, when
representations of evil characters were outlawed. It then only survived in remote, hard-to-access
mountainous areas of the Alps, where the Church could not easily impose its rules.
Being of Austrian origin, I was able to witness the more recent evolution of the custom.
Groups of mainly young people have tried from the early 90s onwards to bring this tradition back to
life. The constant aesthetical evolution of the wooden masks and fur garments traditionally worn by the
Perchten and designed to increase and renew the fear of the heart of men, means this custom
remains alive and kicking today.
Not only the aesthetics and codes of the ceremonial constitute elements of the play, but they also
serve to feed the issues raised.
A custom stripped of its ritualistic function
Traces of this custom can be found in the 90s in the culture associated with certain types of music,
such as black metal. The characters of the Perchten continue to serve their original purpose: scaring
people - creating not only anxiety but also desire, and raising issues linked to our relationship with
death.
Some bands of young male musicians proudly claiming to be part of the black metal movement have,
particularly in Norway, mixed this fantastical, traditional universe with reality. Acts of vandalism have
been committed, their perpetrators thinking they would thus become part of a certain Germanic and
Scandinavian heritage, and showing their confusion through the transposition of fantasies - which
were originally part of a ritual - and through their out-of-context expression.
I have taken these confused teenagers and the way they modified an old tradition, in order to examine
the shift from fantasy to reality and the separation between fantasy and rational thinking. Although this
issue was in previous work placed in an erotic and intimate setting, it now tackles our political
behaviour and collective fantasies.

KINDERTOTENLIEDER, A REPRESENTATION OF SHIFTING FANTASIES
When fantasies turn to reality
Kindertotenlieder invites us to examine our own experience of the interpretation of reality and
fantasy when faced with various registers of representation. It also leads us to question the expression
of our own fantasies, fears and obsessions as well as our awareness of these elements, within their
setting or within the hypotheses drawn from our imagination.
On the stage, two teenagers within a group experience this confusion between fiction and reality. They
are attending what seems to be a representation of a sort of concert for a funeral. The music is played
by Stephen O’Malley and Peter Rehberg, among others, and it is a calm, dark and powerful score, like
a bewitching version of black metal.
Twenty-odd characters perform the various aspects of the play, from realism to obvious artificiality,
through a sort of alphabet that links in one same flow body language, speech and a visual treatment of
bodies (through make-up, masks, etc.) from the most schematic to the most realistic. Dancers,
musicians and life-sized dolls all play a role, in an often-disturbed logic, and share the roles and words
of the dead, the living, and the ghosts.
The narrative grows in an environment favourable to the projection of fantasies, reminiscent of the
dark romantic look of many alpine landscapes in winter. It allows for an interaction between romantic
aesthetics and the aesthetics of the traditional custom of the Perchten. The above interaction often
influences the aesthetics of black metal. Links and contradictions existing between these visual
universes from different historical eras drive the aesthetics of this show.
As the show progresses, the status of what is represented changes. The scene the two young boys
and ourselves are watching represents the mourning ceremony for the funeral of one of them. The
story then goes back to what lead the teenager to his death.
The death itself is shown three times. First is the representation imagined by the murderer, then
comes the fantasy representation of the victim, and finally what is presented to the public as the
reality. This scene is strewn with elements hinting that these are the real facts. A crime has been
recorded. The record is told to the audience, but the veracity of this document cannot be confirmed
nor infirmed.
Finally the play becomes more of a concert, but the theatrical aspect and the tricks used are
exaggerated, offering a new possible interpretation of the whole play, i.e. if what preceded this
moment does not belong to the performance of the same concert.
The two teenagers are haunted by the idea of suicide and of their own death. Through the realisation,
presented as ‘real’, of their fantasies, they show us how their passions and the play shift, and thus
how we can go from fiction to reality. Fiction is shown through the funeral and the concert, and through
the imagination of the murderer and of the victim. Reality is represented through the third crime scene,
which closes the narrative and precedes the last concert. The distinction between the two spaces is
also palpable in what separates the teenagers from what they see. The representation of reality thus
loses its certainty.
The representation of the horrifying and the “uncanny”
I wish to examine the representation of dread, in relation to the representation of death, and the
constant proximity in which it remains with human properties such as the body physical appearance
and behaviour. The representation of dread and the horrifying leads to what Sigmund Freud called the
“uncanny”: the representation of something both familiar and alien, and consequently disturbing. It
therefore constitutes a great trigger of cathartic experiences characterising ceremonies, rituals and
shows, such as the one we are concerned with.
The stage, in this case, and in general, is a place where one can call to and resuscitate the dead.
Between dream and reality, performers blend in the play, through their appearance and movements,
with other characters represented by artificial or altered bodies - moving or limp - who create this
feeling of the uncanny linked to death by mimicking life.

THE IMPORTANCE OF FANTASIES IN SOCIETY
The interference between passion and rational comprehension
The confusion between reality and imagination as regards the expression of our fantasies is truly
problematic as far as the setting in which morals should reign is concerned. This interference
between our passion and our rational comprehension is potentially dangerous for the blossoming of
our imagination. It is even more so in the realm of our rational activity, when our fantasies cannot
unfurl in the field of the imagination.
This confusion that exists within our societies does not seem about to fade any time soon and it
suddenly seems necessary to identify separate spaces.
The need for “unproductive expenses”
In George Bataille’s book, The Accursed Share, rituals and art are closely linked to the concept of
“unproductive expenditure”. Indeed, this concept as presented in this book raises the issue of the
importance of rituals and art as activities of sheer expenditure and total waste.
The locations where collective and intimate fantasies are being expressed are also found in activities
of “unproductive expenditure” such as rituals, games, shows, arts, and sexual activity beyond the
purpose of reproduction. These activities have their own aim, and create spaces where passion can
flourish.
Death appears as the most obvious example of “unproductive expenditure”. It represents the loss and
the visible blending of the body with the world, its ostensible disappearance through decomposition.
From then on, it also acts as a metaphor of the blending feeling of the body with the world. This feeling
appears like a quest within our desires for loss or abandon, which is at least partially achieved through
various types of “unproductive expenditure”. Death thus appears like a metaphor of the poetic and
erotic experience.
The stage experience aims to reflect the metaphoric value of the artistic experience and George
Bataille’s words in his introduction to Eroticism: “Poetry leads to the same space as all forms of
eroticism, to the blending and fusion of separate objects. It leads us to eternity, it leads us to death,
and through death to continuity (...)”
The artistic space as a necessary space of absolute freedom
Rituals and art can both be seen as an outlet for collective and individual fantasies. These spaces of
“unproductive expenses” therefore become spaces of particular types of freedom – individual or
collective – which move away from the moral standpoint governing our rational behaviour.
I see the artistic space as a necessary space of absolute freedom, which reflects our passion and
fantasies, away from our orderly rational activity.
This space, just as the ritual space, also allows us to face our fantasies, to express them, to
discover them, and to question them. It is essential that we candidly question the passions within
ourselves, and in which type of spaces we wish to experience them.
Our denial of our own fantasies, in particular those that violently clash with our morals,
including in the original source of fantasies - imagination – also leads us also to condemn the
expression of some fantasies in the artistic field. If the expression of fantasies, exempt of denial (if that
is at all possible), in a definite field such as art or a ceremony, seems necessary in every society, it is
also possible that an honest, conscious acknowledgment of our impulsions also allows an openminded
perspective and greater tolerance.

Photo Igonta Passe 2003

BACKGROUNDS
CREATION
Gisèle Vienne was born in 1976, she is a franco-austrian artist, choreographer and director. After
graduating in Philosophy, she studied at the puppeteering school Ecole Supérieure Nationale des Arts
de la Marionnette. There she met Etienne Bideau-Rey with whom she created her first shows.
She works regularly with, amongs other, the writers Dennis Cooper and Catherine Robbe-Grillet, the
musicians Peter Rehberg and Stephen O'Malley, the light designer Patrick Riou and the actor
Jonathan Capdevielle. Since 2004, she has choreographed and directed, in collaboration with the
writer Dennis Cooper, I Apologize (2004) and Une belle enfant blonde / A young, beautiful blond girl
(2005), Kindertotenlieder (2007) and Jerk, a radioplay in the framework of the “atelier de création
radiophonique” of France Culture (June 2007), the play Jerk (2008), This is how you will disappear
(2010) and LAST SPRING: A Prequel (2011). In 2009, she created Eternelle Idole with an ice skater
and an actor and the rewriting of Showroomdummies with Etienne Bideau-Rey. Since 2005, she has
been frequently exhibiting her photographs and installations.
Gisèle Vienne, Dennis Cooper, Peter Rehberg and Jonathan Capdevielle published an audio book in
2 versions French and English: JERK / Through Their Tears, editions DIS VOIR. She will published a
book 40 PORTRAITS 2003-2008, in collaboration with Dennis Cooper and Pierre Dourthe (Publisher :
P.O.L / release: February 16, 2012).
The current works in progress are: a solo performance with the dancer Anja Röttgerkamp, an
installation-staging LAST SPRING: (subheading in progress) and an interpretation of Le Sacre du
Printemps.
For further information please visit: http://www.g-v.fr.
TEXTS
Dennis Cooper is a novelist, poet and critic. He lives in Paris and Los Angeles. He has published
eight novels, most recently The Sluts and God Jr., both 2005. In France this books are published by
POL.
He is a contributing Editor of Art Forum Magazine and the editor of the American publishing imprint
Little House on the Bowery. His most recent book is a short fiction collection Ugly Man, published in
France by POL this past spring under the title Un type immonde.
He has written all the texts in I Apologize (2004), Kindertotenlieder (2007), Jerk (2008), This is how
you will disappear (2010), LAST SPRING : A Prequel (2011) and Une enfant blonde. A Young
Beautiful blonde girl (2006), in collaboration with Catherine Robbe-Grillet.
Gisèle Vienne, Dennis Cooper, Peter Rehberg and Jonathan Capdevielle just published, in March
2011 an audio book in 2 versions French and English: “JERK / Through Their Tears”, editions DIS
VOIR. Furthermore in collaboration with Gisèle Vienne, he’s directing the fanzine LAST SPRING : The
Maps, in the frame of la Cooperative Fanzine created by Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Philippe
Parreno and Jean-Max Colard (publication : spring 2011)
For further information on his work, please visit: http://www.denniscooper.net/
MUSIC
KTL is the band of Stephen O’Malley and Peter Rehberg based on the creation Kindertotenlieder.
Their first CD has been released in October 2006 (Editions Mego).
Stephen O’Malley was born in 1974 in New Hampshire (USA) and now lives in Paris. As a composing
and performing musician, and producer, he has completed over 50 releases and several hundred
performances around the world over the span of 15 years. Stephen O'Malley is part of several groups
including Sunn O))), Burning Witch, KTL, Khanate, Aethenor, Ginnungagap, Lotus Eaters and
Gravetemple. He is involved in highly collaborative experimental work and works together with many
audio creatives, both live and on record. The work created together and alone has been recognized as
crossing genre, or ignoring it altogether, outside of definition. It is continually challenging and
changing.

As a designer and visual artist, O’Malley has worked together with many underground music labels,
directing hundreds of sleeves and related ephemera. He has a special relationship with the Southern
Lord label of Los Angeles, for whom nearly 100 sleeves alone have been completed.
O’Malley has worked together with visual artists in gallery installation work, most notably with the
American New Gothic sculptor, Banks Violette and the italian artist Nico Vascellari. In Gisele Vienne
plays, he has created the music for Kindertotenlieder (2007), This is how you will disappear (2010)
and LAST SPRING : A Prequel (2011) in collaboration with Peter Rehberg with whom he founded the
band KTL and for Eternelle Idole (2009).
Gisèle Vienne, Dennis Cooper, Peter Rehberg and Jonathan Capdevielle just published, in March
2011 an audio book in 2 versions French and English: “JERK / Through Their Tears”, editions DIS
VOIR. More information about his discography and work available at: http://www.ideologic.org/
Peter Rehberg (born in 1968) is an author and performer of electronic audio works based in Vienna,
Austria. Rehberg has given live performances both solo and collaborative throughout Europe, North &
South America, Japan and Australia. One of the first batch of artists that turned to mobile computing
devices for presentation of live audio performances in mid-1990’s. He has collaborated live and in the
studio with, amongst others, Jim O'Rourke and Christian Fennesz (as Fenn O’Berg), Stephen
O’Malley (as KTL), Gisele Vienne/DACM (www.g-v.fr), Peterlicker, Z’EV Russell Haswell, Florian
Hecker, Meg Stuart, Chris Haring, Marcus Schmickler, Jade, SUNNO))), as well as being a member of
MIMEO. He also operates the Editions Mego (www.editionsmego.com) label since 2006, and was coleader
of the original Mego label since 1995. His collaboration with Gisèle Vienne involved creating
the music for I Apologize (2004) and Une belle enfant blonde / A Young Beautiful Blond Girl (2006),
Kindertotenlieder (2007), This is how you will disappear (2010) and LAST SPRING : A Prequel (2011)
in collaboration with Stephen O’Malley with whom he formed the band KTL, Jerk a radio-play, Jerk
solo for a puppeteer as well as for two other shows by Etienne Bideau- Rey & Gisèle Vienne:
Showroomdummies (2001 & rewriting in 2009) and Stereotypie (2003). He also collaborated on the
music for Highway 101, a show choreographed by Meg Stuart, and for Fremdkörper by Chris Haring,
as well as taking part in the 2nd Göteborg Art Biennale (Against All Evens) curated by CM von
Hausswolff in 2003.
Gisèle Vienne, Dennis Cooper, Peter Rehberg and Jonathan Capdevielle just published, in March
2011 an audio book in 2 versions French and English: “JERK / Through Their Tears”, editions DIS
VOIR. More informations on www.editionsmego.com
PERFORMERS
ACTOR
Jonathan Capdevielle was born in 1976 in Tarbes, France. He lives in Paris.
He studied drama in Tarbes from 1993 to 1996, Then he entered the Ecole Supérieure Nationale des
Arts de la Marionnette.
He has been involved in several performances such as: Personnage à réactiver, Pierre Joseph
(1994), Performance with Claude Wampler (1999), Mickey la Torche by Natacha de Pontcharra,
translation Taoufik Jebali, directed by Lotfi Achour, Tunis (2000), Les Parieurs and Blonde
Unfuckingbelievable Blond, directed by Marielle Pinsard (2002), Le Golem directed by David Girondin
Moab (2004), Le Dispariteur, Le groupe St Augustin, Monsieur Villovitch, Hamlet and Marseille
Massacre (atelier de création radiophonique - France Culture), mise en scène d’Yves-Noël Genod
(2004-2010).
Gisèle Vienne’s collaborator since the beginning, he has been performing in all her plays: Jean
Genet’s Splendid’s (2000), Showroomdummies (2001 and rewriting 2009) and Stéréotypie (2003),
directed by Etienne Bideau – Rey and Gisèle Vienne. And I Apologize (2004), Une belle enfant blonde
/ A Young, Beautiful Blond Girl (2005), Kindertotenlieder (2007), Jerk, a radioplay (2007,) Jerk (2008),
Eternelle Idole (2009), This is how you will disappear (2010) and LAST SPRING : A Prequel (2011),
directed by Gisèle Vienne. Gisèle Vienne, Dennis Cooper, Peter Rehberg and Jonathan Capdevielle
just published, in March 2011 an audio book in 2 versions French and English: “JERK / Through Their
Tears”, editions DIS VOIR.
In September 2006, he created with Guillaume Marie We are accidents waiting to happen in the Palais
de Tokyo. In August 2007, he presented for the first time the performance-show Jonathan Covering
during the Festival Tanz im August in Berlin, starting point of his first solo creation Adishatz / adieu,
created in November 2009 at Centre Chorégraphique National de Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon

in the framework of ]Domaines[ & in January 2010 in CDC Toulouse for the festival C'est de la Danse
Contemporaine 2010. In April 2010, he is performer for the radiophonic play of Yves-Noë Genod and
Nathalie Quintane, Marseille massacre in the framework of “ateliers de creation radiophonique de
France Culture”.
Gisèle Vienne, Dennis Cooper, Peter Rehberg and Jonathan Capdevielle just published, in March
2011 an audio book in 2 versions French and English: “JERK / Through Their Tears”, editions DIS
VOIR.
DANCER
Margrét Sara Gudjónsdóttir was born in Reykjavík, Iceland, in 1978. She studied at the dance
department of the Art Academy HKA in Arnhem and Amsterdam in the Netherlands, and graduated in
2002. Margret Sara has created 10 performance based works since co-founding the performance
productions house Panic Productions in Iceland in 2004. (www.panicproductions.is) She lives and
works between Berlin and Amsterdam. Margret Sara has worked with amongst others : Erna
Ómarsdóttir and Jóhann Jóhannsson, Constanza Macras/Dorky Park, Jan Fabre, Anne Tismer and
Rahel Salvoldelli/Gutes Tun. She is also performer in Kindertotenlider (2007) and This is how you will
disappear (2010) of Gisèle Vienne.
Guillaume Marie was born in Caen in 1980 and currently lives in Paris. He studied at the l’Ecole de
Danse de L’opéra de Paris between 1990 and 1995 and at the Conservatoire Nationale de Musique et
de Dance in Paris between 1995 and 1999 where he graduated.
In 2000 he began his career as a dancer/performer with Maryse Delente/Ballet du Nord, then left
France and worked for few years in Holland with Itzik Galili/Galili Dance, Suzy Blok, Martin Butler,Piet
Rogie/Rogie Company. In 2003 he met Jan Fabre and he played in Je suis sang.
He also performed in the singing tour conceived by Jonathan Capdevielle Jonathan’s coveringcreated
in Tanz In August (Berlin) in 2007. Impressed by the universe of the choreographer/director/visual
artist Gisèle Vienne, Guillaume joined her and Dennis Cooper on the project Kindertotenlieder. He
continued his collaboration with Gisèle Vienne and Etienne Bideau-Rey and interpreted
Showroomdummies (re-wriiting 2009).
Since 2005, Guillaume develops the artistic projects of Tazcorp, a company created in collaboration
with costume designer Cedrick Debeuf (Dior, Lacroix, ...) and with various international artists coming
from many different fields such as video, performance, make-up, dance, music and theater. His work,
at the intersection of several disciplines expressed though various mediums, questions the Human, its
social framework, fantasies, and its inconsistencies.
Specifically, Guillaume is inspired by various famous and highly symbolic «faits divers»/news. He likes
to use them in relashionship with the body, in order to question and to create some abstract or
symbolic material where facts and fictions are structured in a dramaturgic maze. His work, very plastic,
is built in close collaboration with various artists and contributors who surround him.
As a visual artist, Guillaume Marie, directed two short films: Private Earthquakes15’ (2007).
Guillaume presented his projects AsfixiA, a piece for 3 dancers / actress (and a dark-ambient musician
and Nancy, an installation for a dancer, a musician and a makeup artist.
Anja Röttgerkamp was born in Germany in 1969. She lives in Brussels, Belgium.
She performed for several choreographers in Germany. She joined the company L’Esquisse,
managed by Joëlle Bouvier and Régis Obadia in 1996 until 1998, then worked with the Italian
choreographer Raffaella Giordano. She now works mainly for choreographers Marco Berrettini (Sorry,
do the tour, New mouvements for old bodies, NoParaderan…) and Gisèle Vienne (I Apologize, Une
belle enfant blonde / A young, beautiful blond girl, and Showroomdummies, rewriting of Etienne
Bideau Rey and Gisèle Vienne).
Jonathan Schatz was born in 1984.
After studying at l'École Supérieure de l'Opéra National de Paris and at the Conservatoire National
Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Lyon, Jonathan Schatz studied at the Centre National de
Danse Contemporaine of Angers In 2006/2007, with Marianne Baillot, they created live in a cake,
Stand by me mad heaven et Today we will meet in Paradise. In 2008, he joined Thibaud Le Maguer
for the project multiplex and performed for Dominique Brun’s re-creation of Vaslav Nijinsky, Le Sacre
du Printemps.

He also works with Geisha Fontaine and Pierre Cottreau en hommage à Pina Bausch.
Since 2007, he worked out OVO, a research laboratory which is about decomposition, composition
and whirling. He also develop musical works interested in instantaneous compositions and using
various media such as radio frequencies, prepared guitars and drums.
In 2009, he met Gisèle Vienne for Kindertotenlieder (2007), he is also performer in This is how you
disappear (2010)
He was a part of the program Transforme 2010/2011, Se prolonger, at La Fondation Royaumont as an
author-performer.
Photo Antoine Masure

Press
The Herald
Mai 2007

Moved to tears by the dolls of death
SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY
by Mark Fisher
The last show created by Gisèle Vienne caused an outrage. Her new one makes people cry. "The
context is more lyrical and romantic, and I've had a very emotional reaction," says the French/Swiss
director who is making her Glasgow debut with Kindertotenlieder. "It's the first time I've had people
crying in the audience."
She has been invited to Scotland on the strength of 2004's provocative I Apologise, like
Kindertotenlieder a collaboration with cult American novelist Dennis Cooper. On paper, the new one
sounds as if it's going the same way: it refers to the grief-stricken poem cycle by Friedrich Rückert that
inspired Gustav Mahler's Kindertotenlieder (Songs On The Death Of Children), deals with the subject
of teen murder and features a set of 11 creepily life-like mannequins alongside its performers.
But Vienne, 30, who sets the dance-theatre-music piece in a snowy landscape to echo the late-
Romantic mood of Mahler, says she's not out to shock. "People are invited to understand what is
happening on stage," she says. "When we talk about murder it's not about saying 'look how violent or
ugly it is' and rubbing it in your face. I take a softer approach and try to understand why killing can be a
fantasy."
The play can be seen as an extension of Dennis Cooper's five-novel cycle - Closer, Frisk, Try, Guide
and Period - a William Burroughs-like collection which obsessed over George Miles, the first person
who "openly and unquestionably loved" the author. In real life, the two schoolboy friends, who briefly
became lovers in their late-20s, lost contact with each other. Many years later, the author discovered
Miles had committed suicide when Cooper had been writing the cycle of novels in his name.
Like those novels, Kindertotenlieder is haunted by the idea of teenage death. "It's not directly about
George Miles but it's about a boy who killed his friend," says Vienne, who sets the work to a brooding
soundscape by guitarist Stephen O'Malley and electronica expert Peter Rehberg. "The murder sounds
cruel, but we find out it was about love. The show is like a homage to a missing teenager."
Part-funeral, part-pagan ritual, the play is set in the subculture of black metal, an extreme offshoot of
heavy metal, associated with Satanism and a death fixation.
"There is a collective fantasy of killing," Vienne says. "Art, religion or any form of representation can
bring us the cathartic experience of feeling we're living out our fantasy. If the kids in Kindertotenlieder
didn't fulfil their fantasies of death in the rock concert, they would go and commit the act for real. We
should admit these immoral fantasies and have places where you can live them out."
Perhaps the most striking aspect of the show is that the role of the killer teenager is shared between
an actor and a mannequin. "When he is played by the actor, you have the feeling that he's all alone,
that the whole performance features only one living person and that all the crew are ghosts, especially
because of the presence of the dolls," she says.
By using dummies alongside live performers Vienne, who has studied puppetry, plays with the
discomfort we feel at seeing dolls that are at once life-like and inert. Their make-up and appearance
suggests life, but their immobility suggests death.
"They create an uncanny feeling because they are very close to us and yet still objects," she says.
"Even in 2007, our relationship to objects that have a human form is complex. Of course, we recognise
these mannequins as dolls, yet we don't have the same relationship to a mannequin as we do to a
chair or a table. Even without moving, they are disturbing."
So if Kindertotenlieder makes the audience cry, does it affect Vienne the same way? "No, but it
shakes me," she says.
Kindertotenlieder, Tramway, Glasgow (0845 330 3501), May 24-26 www.tramway.org

THE WIRE
This collaboration between Peter Rehberg and SunnO))) guitarist Stephen O'Malley was commisioned
for 'Kindertotenlieder', a performance piece by french choreographer Giséle Vienne and US author
Dennis Cooper. The title translates as 'Songs On The Death Of Children' and derives from a series of
425 poems by Friedrich Ruckert (1788-1866), written after two of his children died in 16 days. The
poems later inspired a five-part song cycle by Gustav Mahler, who noted the 'five songs are intended
as one inseparate unit, and in performing them their continuity should not be interfered with'. The
same can be said of the six movements of KTL's piece, but while Mahler's cycle was steeped in the
ultimately redemptive language of late Romanticism, KTL seem more concerned with the immediate
horror of child mortality and the turmoil unleashed within polite society by such instances of 'unnatural'
death.
Beginning in near silence, Rehberg's insidious drone soon finds itself invaded by clanging, dissolute
chords from O'Malley's guitar. What at first sounds somewhat gothic - in the subcultural sense -
eventually erupts in a shattered whorl of electronic chaff. Arcs of feedback lash at unnatural angles,
mechanical screams issue from the lightless mass and mangeled riffs fester like Black Metal gone
terminally septic. When the storm finally subsides, it leaves not calm but creeping emptiness
punctuated by disquietingly furtive fretboard clamour and distant snarls of metal machine noise.
The two musicans work effectively together, O'Malley evoking a sense of dread and grief with his
downtuned sludge while the sounds issuing from Rehberg's corner disrupt the air like shockwaves
shuddering through the collective unconscious. Vienne and Cooper's 'Kindertotenlieder' premieres in
Brest, France in February 2007 and if this music is anything to go by, it should prove to be an
unforgettable - if unsettling - experience.