Gilgamesh
Gilgamesh performance
Gilgamesh
is a 70 minute work for puppeteer/actor, violinist/actor, and electronic music.  The creative team includes: Douglas Geers, composier and performer of live electronics,
Mirjam Neidhart, director, Anne Lorenz, artist and designer of stage objects and costumes, assisted by Karin Bühler, Philipp Siegel, actor, Maja Cerar, violinist, and Karin Bühler, video. The premiere in 2003, which took place at the Theater an der Sihl in Zürich, Switzerland, was made possible by the Hochschule der Künste, Zürich, Swityerland, under the directorship of Daniel Fueter:


From the program notes of the premiere:

Gilgamesh, the world's oldest known written story, tells the dramatic tale of one man's arrogance, crisis, and quest for immortality.

As its events unfold, King Gilgamesh dares to defy the will of the gods again and again, only to find his victory answered by the sting of their wrath. Moreover, the gods themselves spark additional unexpected plot twists as they argue, lust, and become jealous of both each other and the mortals they govern, fueling a fierce struggle for love, glorification, and ultimate power.
 
Combining elements from puppet theater, installation art, chamber music, and ballet, this unique telling of the Gilgamesh story heats up the inherent tensions of the plot by presenting it as an improvised game of the gods. The three players in this game are a violinist, computer musician, and actor/puppeteer; and their only "speech" is music.  Beginning with a seemingly static installation, the performers breathe life into the objects with music and motion and immerse themselves in the epic. The characters' evolving relationships oscillate between cooperation and revenge, bringing about both symbiosis as well as destruction. It is sometimes purposely made unclear who is 'animating' whom, and occasionally even the music, from which all of the action and emotions arise, completely breaks down.

The music of Gilgamesh develops as a dynamic concerto-like dialogue between a virtuosic solo violin and a vibrant "orchestra" of electronic music.  The violin's sound is constantly sent via microphone into a laptop computer played by Douglas Geers, who directs it to analyze and modify the violin sound, and "conducts" its synthesized musical reactions to Maja Cerar's performance.

Moving beyond the traditional concerto concept, the violinist is also an actor, embodying her characters' thoughts and emotions while dancing, running, and even crawling onstage, both personifying characters and operating puppets. Meanwhile Philip Siegel, the puppeteer/actor, performs with equal virtuosity, portraying all the other characters of the story--sometimes several simultaneously. 

Visually, strong design concepts imbue Gilgamesh with a stunning clean style, thanks to the creations of Anne Lorenz (assisted by Karin Bühler), which are installation objects as well as puppets. These include life size characters that can stand by themselves or be worn as costumes, and other, seemingly mundane objects that become unexpectedly alive in the actors' hands.