Benno Besson (1922 - 23 Φεβρουαρίου 2006)

Ο Ελβετός ηθοποιός και σκηνοθέτης Benno Besson (το όνομά του ήταν René-Benjamin Besson), γεννήθηκε στις 4 Νοεμβρίου 1922 , στο Yverdon-les-Bains και πέθανε στις 23 Φεβρουαρίου 2006 στο Βερολίνο. Οι μεγαλύτερες επιτυχίες του ως σκηνοθέτης έγιναν στα θέατρα Volksbühne Berlin, Deutsches Theater και Berliner Ensemble στο τότε Ανατολικό Βερολίνο, όταν πήγε να επισκεφθεί τον Bertolt Brecht το 1949. Μερικές από τις επιτυχημένες σκηνοθεσίες του ήταν "Ο Δράκος" του Jewgenij Schwarz, ένα έργο με το Deutsches Theater με το οποίο έκανε περιοδεία στην Ευρώπη και στην Ασία (επίσης και στην Ιαπωνία), και "Der Frieden" (Aristophanes edited by Peter Hacks). Στη δεκαετία του 1960 συνεργάστηκε συχνά με τον συγγραφέα Heiner Müller. Συνεργάστηκε επίσης με δημοφιλείς ηθοποιούς, όπως οι Fred Düren, Eberhard Esche και Ursula Karusseit. Είχε έξι παιδιά, κι ένα από αυτά είναι η διάσημη Γερμανίδα ηθοποιός Katharina Thalbach.

• Benno Besson. Radical director in the Brechtian tradition who revitalised the Deutsches Theater.

In 1961 the Swiss theatre director Benno Besson, who has died aged 83 after a long illness, took up an offer from Wolfgang Langhof to join the Deutsches Theater ensemble in East Berlin. His productions were to be some of the ensemble’s most popular ever; they were kept in the repertoire for between 100 and 200 performances, and saw the full maturing of his prodigious talent and distinctive voice.

He gave the theatrical space a new sense of freedom. There were Two Gentlemen of Verona, and Tartuffe - and, in 1962, the premiere of the Aristophanes-Peter Hacks play, Peace, which was received with 45 minutes of applause and 15 curtain calls.

Above all, there was The Dragon, by the Soviet playwright Yevgeni Schwarz. Besson’s production, which was also greeted rapturously, toured a number of European countries - though not, unfortunately, Britain - and established his international reputation. The play depicted a fairytale land of cowed people dominated by a retributional dragon, which ruled through corrupt officials. The production had resonances that echoed across Europe.

Besson’s use of scenery was, in the tradition of those other great men of 20th-century theatre Jean Vilar, Giorgio Strehler and Bertolt Brecht, revelatory. In The Dragon, the fire-breathing monster always brought gasps from audiences, and Besson created a fantasy world with a veritable labyrinth of narrow alleys, triffid-like trees and baroque, sugar-iced castles. In Peace, the scenery had been the exact opposite - bare walls and sackcloth costumes, while the actors used trapezes and wires, reminiscent of Peter Brook’s later A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

[Το Théâtre Benno Besson στην Yverdon, που ονομάστηκε έτσι προς τιμή του]

Developing Brecht’s theories in a new and fresher direction, Besson was instrumental in establishing a new style of acting at the Deutsches Theatre, which had, until then, been much more in the realist tradition. Some have characterised Besson’s approach as puppet theatre, because of his reliance on theatrical machinery and, by those used to a more effusive, realistic approach, as "wooden acting". But his productions were characterised by clarity, freshness and liveliness.

"You can only create art in the theatre," said Besson, "if you first master the art and draw in all forces to fulfil a single goal." This was the overwhelming impression his productions communicated; you felt the full impact of consensual ensemble playing… [The Guardian, Published: 4/3/2006]

ΒΛΕΠΕ ΚΑΙ:

Regisseur Benno Besson ist tot. Der Schweizer Theaterregisseur Benno Besson ist tot. Mit ihm ist einer der ganz Grossen des europäischen Theaters verstorben.