L7L – Die sieben Irren

(2022)

The idea seemed simple. And of course, there are always paradoxes: it wasn't so simple to pull off.

We were a team (Ignacio Bartolone, Oria Puppo, Maeva Rouve, Luciano Rosso, Alejandro Tantanian, Irem Tasdan, Florencia Tutusaus, and Martín Valdés-Stauber – in strict alphabetical order) who believed in the compelling relevance of Roberto Arlt's novel. We knew we could say something in the midst of these turbulent political times. We knew that in Germany, not only the unique language of The Seven Madmen could be of interest, but also the political virulence and that extraordinary play Arlt plays interweaving reality with the most extreme fiction. The management of the Münchner Kammerspiele read the novel and gave us the green light (back in 2018) to make the project a reality. Back and forth, pandemic, opening, closing, closing, opening, and more back and forth until the certainty of a premiere on December 8, 2022.

It's still surprising to read these words from the Astrologer: "I don't know if our society will be Bolshevik or fascist. Sometimes I'm inclined to believe that the best thing to do is prepare a Russian salad that even God wouldn't understand." These words from the Astrologer, the central character in one of the two novels that function within Arlt's novel, seem to be being spoken today. They are not far from what Putin once said (and which Emmanuel Carrère used as an epigraph in his book Limonov): "Whoever wants to restore communism has no head; whoever doesn't miss it has no heart," or from the phrases that Aleksandr Dugin might whisper in Vladimir Putin's ear today. The examples, of course, go beyond Russia. They are present throughout the length and breadth of the planet. We only cite this example because of its pressing relevance.
Arlt's work is fiction, of course. But Roberto Arlt's desire was to construct reality through the tools of his imagination. His dual vocation as a fiction writer and a journalist were never separate. We can say without equivocation that today we materially live out the fictional dreams Arlt designed for his novel. Our days today are the hallucinated creation of the Astrologer. This is precisely where the power of this character lies. And the power of what we construct as the dramaturgy of our show.

It would not, then, be a theatrical adaptation of the novel, but rather a kind of possession: a new body (the show) possessed by the guiding ideas of Arlt's novel. And to that end, we created a sort of fictional secret society that, using the Kammerspiele facilities, organized an evening to present the benefits and ideals of this society to the citizens of Munich, with the aim of encouraging some of those attending to join its ranks. This fictional secret society is clearly inspired by Arlt's and believes in the transformative power of fiction. One of its members faces the audience and says: "We thank you again for being here tonight.
(…)
The plan is simple: unite to change reality. And since everything seems to resist change, since this enemy reality seems to give us no respite, slipping away, seeping through the sewers of ideologies, justifying our humiliation so that the system continues to function, we decided to change it using this as a tool."
At that moment, he took out of one of his pockets not a gun, but a copy of The Seven Madmen by Roberto Arlt.
(…)
It's a book, a novel, by an Argentine, who died in 1942—at the young age of 42, an Argentine born in the same century who wrote what for us could be our revolutionary plan of operations.
Yes: an instruction manual to end this state of affairs. For centuries they tried to convince us of the ineffectiveness of fiction when it comes to transforming reality. But there are Don Quixote, Emma Bovary, or the The tireless Anna Karenina reading her English novel on Russian trains.
Fiction readers who decide to change their lives, transform their realities through reading.
And there are not only readers in novels: the great Eugene Sue sparked awareness among French citizens of a necessary change: his serial novel "The Mysteries of Paris" accelerated the revolutionary process. Why not believe that this is also possible now? Fiction is the key to change, that's why we're gathered here today.
(…)
This anarchist author clearly offers us an instruction manual for carrying out change.
What it's about, then, is summoning those ideas, lending our bodies to the experience of fiction, making that experience the key so that our emotions, aligned with our thoughts, allow us to carry out our plan of action.



It was difficult for the cast to understand that the show was a presentation, not a performance. That is to say, asking them to be themselves, speaking slightly.

with the public trying to convince them of the virtues of belonging to the secret society of which they were members and to renounce the "fascination" of losing themselves in the psychologies and actions of Arlt's characters—they wanted fiction, and we wanted to inhabit that blurred border that separates reality from fiction.

On December 7, the local and international press reported the arrest and opening of a sedition trial against approximately 25 German citizens allegedly involved in planning a coup against the country's authorities. According to police sources, the accused planned to storm parliament, overthrow the current government, and establish a monarchical regime ruled by Henry XIII, Prince Reuss. All those arrested, including Prince Reuss, belong to a group known as the Reichsburger Movement, whose adherents reject the legitimacy of the constitutional order of the modern German state, believing that the German Empire never dissolved and therefore still exists.

Our premiere was, as planned, on December 8th. The show's reviews highlighted the degree of synchronicity between the events of history and the events of fiction at the Munich Kammerspiele.

The cast was forced to disbelieve in the futility of our proposal and understand that, sometimes, fiction can indeed overtake reality. Our Seven Madmen were a true political event. Brecht, who began his career at the Kammerspiele, celebrates from wherever he is.

And we affirm: yes, our days today are the hallucinated creation of the Astrologer.

Alejandro Tantanian

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Photos: Gentileza MK

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