Das große Heft (The Notebook)

Jury Statement

Ulrich Rasche’s choral art is devised for grandeur, for pathos, for powerful imagery and sensory overload. Some may say that it smells like Rammstein. All of this is true. But like hardly any other director, Rasche lets us hear texts in new ways, unfolding them in front of the viewers’ consciousness with the most precise rhythmisation, inspiring and exciting their thought processes. Spellbound, we follow Ágota Kristóf’s wartime childhood stories for nearly four hours. It is a dark piece, full of violence and sexual obsessions, presented with brittle and artful behaviourist storytelling. At a leisurely pace, Rasche traces the stories with oppressive intensity, his male choirs striding on huge rotating discs, driven by Monika Roscher’s minimalist sound art. It is a look into a fascist, militaristic childhood world, purged of all morality, a stroll into the rolling mill of bourgeoning male fantasies.