 So welcome everybody here to the Martin E. Segal Peter Center, the Graduate Center CUNY. My name is Frank Henschka and I'm the director of the Segal Center. Welcome back. We are thrilled to be back online and live after almost three and a half years where we were closed. We only opened and last summer and It's a great pleasure to have an evening here dedicated to the work of the great Elfride Yellenek. This is our fourth evening with her. We did sickness modern woman the Racknitz event that we showed the Trump piece she created so beautifully here So we feel a strong connection and to her and it seems to be also the season for the Nobel Prize winners We have the Yon Fosse event also the great Norwegian writer who we also did readings here We will do it's May 6 a full day of readings of five plays in translation by Sarah Cameron Sunde And here's a marathon reading to also highlight his work Um, so um, we have with us tonight the translator Gita Honika. So a big applause great worker We have Sia here the director of the play And the great harga davis also here with us and um, so the evening will not last longer than an hour Hour 15 minutes. We're gonna have an introduction from Gita about the work a little bit. We're gonna see The performance from helga an excerpt of the play then there will be a five or seven minute Reading from Yellenek herself. We she created a video for us She's very excited that this event is happening here that her work is being recognized and also shown also in a direct theatrical context In a performative context So it means a lot to us that we heard and of course we have here a parable and kelly with us We screened this afternoon their great epic work The kinder they're taught and their children of the dead where they engaged for over three years three and a half years In creator with the community in the landscape Yellenek was born And an engagement with the text with the audience in performing it Also non professional actors a lot of them are actually Engaged in creating the work instead of reading it. It's actually a silent Movie stunningly enough and everybody who knows Yellenek's work This is just a just a brilliant idea and Gita was also Instrumental and connecting them and they worked of an early Translation so if you have a cell phone, maybe just take it out And switch it off have a lot and double check That that works that it's off silent And here you go. Maybe tell us a little bit. What is this work all about and tell us maybe Shortly about Elfride for those who might not know and we welcome all our viewers on howl round Who are here with us nationally and internationally. Thank you. Well, thank you for coming. It's like a family affair In fleet is thrilled And I warn you I mean you don't get the part when we translated that I was on page 400 She told me, you know, you're gonna go crazy. It's gonna get worse and worse And it's kind of a warning that this is not escapist literature and Some is hard to take to me too because anyway But I'm most I don't know. Did you see the film? But I'm most thrilled Is that since the piece is so much about the undead especially of the holocaust Returning and the victims and the perpetrators and taking their crazy revenge It is so I can read this totally in the context of israel and gaza Oh, I thought Really This is an undead voice Anyway, if leader you most probably know the piano player Uh, and she's not easy to translate and uh people in europe compare her to uh finnegan's wake This particularly this work um I asked myself sometimes why am I doing this? But it is really important to me coming from the same generation austrian To deal with our history And so to me every time she writes something It is it is so topical and so painfully topical and what she does with language since we are from the country of wittgenstein Uh, we are obsessed about the language of guilt That's what we grew up with so that's actually my incentive Now those who feel of you who saw the movie that was about one of the women and You could say that in three days in both Of the women you will see the other woman who is a philosophy student I don't know you both probably had no time to read the book because it's just came out And she's a of course a heidegger Heideggerian student so there are a lot of references to heidegger and to the gnosis So when you translate her you're always um When when it's strange language, it's either gnosis or heidegger Uh, and then there come all the other crazy references I think that's all I And yes, yes, I picked the two the two pieces you're gonna see One is her more how she deals with sex in a very weird humorous way But it always that the holocaust always creeps up and the brutality of it Uh, so it's funny In a way, it's also Yeah, it's funny and the second is very short and that's about the landscape and that whole weird undead atmosphere In in in the whole book and in all her writing So that's basically and she's very excited. She wants to greet everybody and at the end that She never does that for anybody. She does it for me and for tea Because they are Jackie and uh, so there's a big trust like she trusts people who She has a kinship with so enjoy and thank you co-conspirators Even And the door to the cell should not simply be torn open just because some pretty Because something pretty was discovered there's Imprinted on them as sent into the field to start running up to They might be deployed later. Maybe not But the game had almost always been cancelled before Good Something that's Still it reveals a ringing from a book So there is nothing but it's this student Waits for the name and is the natural fighter She unlocks the door to the room. She suddenly finds herself standing in front of the fire when the door bangs against her ribs Someone right behind her seems to push it way in Someone who is even more than a hurry to get home for a sheet and self against the door Is The somewhat older She Is a question from her subtract from themselves to show how few of them are actually The following you can't even be kept long enough until the crossing your facts take a look at it That it is still present in some way So that the arrival against Like a god demanding overly high standards from his second Once Which makes the price From her guide and puts it on the table there the young woman stands in the middle of a Of the table the glass instantly puts itself around She has no right to self She only She only In her Since the last one she disappeared so quickly she couldn't even pay for the The kinds of advances the furnishing dare in this place She should agree the object The arrival of something that is neither pleasant So that the horrible moment that threatened Then undecided sitting down again and unfairly against of herself. He is not quite sure if she's with him and to Some place only to find out The racism that she's not taking the dangerous one Above the tires there Seems to be something They would say the same about me because under the disapproving eyes of this know-it-all woman Whose hobby was collecting others dissing to the carefree pairs of eyes and lips Beaming in the light of cosmetics embrace each other lovingly Have thrown around the vomit of language with much less concern than she between That pussy foot woman can now hear very clearly a sound coming from the loss of memory Its intended body might also get lost but at the same time we were still standing there looking There isn't a day that someone else also stayed and out of his mind an existential hit He put himself off the hit list also without much he couldn't be found in town with a hole in the window It is Albeit with a crack this man Who made all the right the man shows himself Is disguised as isn't one controlled the man From the center of the partly swollen sex has appeared The person of care whether there will be an entrance applause Since only body listening something controls that young man by the seat of his pants That thing that came up down there when the wish to live wide had begun to both tilt it in the way The precious part of a slip back again of new crystal clear drops Still keeping over the sexy grip gradually drying up leaving behind an unnatural glow The gift of gas a splashing performer As if this man So this in every sense As much as they can to show how impoverished they are Still sticks to the dead young man It ran down in one time The expressions have all dried up from them, but this pump back world This book read about This arch magic A testament to his last living ways We are all waiting for something more than enough itself that grows on the skin for us to consume This is how So this human ship sticks to everything everywhere and it has dried up completely Not unlike money and the world which also belongs to the integrated school of death Well a territory that is only half the weight in the being and part of this power is raised Ready to shoot any time it wants to but the honor shows no sign of emotion I mean his sex suits the dead man For a man's sex will be the sole survivor so then women will also become The young man's still life looks he was running around as a dead man Poisoned by gas Imagine if this dead man for the diet conference is sick from the disease youth is also available for the food He flies up because the police drove up in a car extra big for poor readers and marked with a blue guy And vague speculations are expressed by people who feel useless because they didn't notice anything They grappled with ideas But they don't grasp it This landscape already somewhat Displattered by tourism So those wanting are advancing only Thank you Their souls have the second Very beginning to that thing alone Yes and Feria nine besiezer a noise gesellschaft spin a song by dem greise über dem lagerfeuer der ewigkeit wie sie sich hier denn die größte vorgestellt haben die brateffel geröstet werden Schatten der gehenden schieben sich heute nur zögern voran Menschen bringen sich am eingang Und fassen das Haus nicht an indem das schreckliche geschehen ist Gruppen die pauschal bezahlt haben halten auch pauschal inne wir rühren fachmännisch ein paar blätter und leugnen den sauren regen da ist ja was gegen ihnen in der hand dran ein gesundes platt das mit dem kopfemig und die gute erde so beliebt dass wir es ihr miss gönnen aus ihr haben manche menschen Bachblöten gezupft damit es ihnen wieder besser gehen es hat ja eine zätzliche seines stattgefunden keine fang Schatten bestehen weiter da die böbernen immer noch funktionieren ein steintauer lieferwagen ist beladen mit menschenzeug für die karitas goddess die später auseinander sortieren muss wieder abgefangen aber dieser tod hat alles verbüllt sogar die worte die ihm gehalten es herrscht unklarheit wer die opfer überhaupt waren ihre sehlen sie inzwischen fremde auf ehren die trotzdem nicht bezahlen müssen wie von einer goddess am beter im ran sollen die toten zerfetzt gewesen sein ihrer besten stücke hat man sie angeblich beraubt diese röhrenknochen darf der hund nicht kriegen überhaupt der hund der hat sich mit gestreuten sonderbar verfilzten haar zusammengegründ es habe sich ein ehrbar auf seinen betenrost unter strom gesetzt und wie geflügelt drüber gekriegt so lautet das gerücht fleißstücke sind angeblich halb gar wie halb verdaute brocken eines erdrucksches in das zimmer geworfen worden nach dem datum auf der verpackung sind diese beiden alten leute noch gar nicht zum verzehr vorgesehen gewesen also hat das gestehensdatum geändert dass ihrem leben die letzte entschieden halt gab und welche geschwendnisse haben sie vorher noch wem gemacht blau der tasche stehen in brocken und spucken, so mülltöten umgearbeitet, ihre vermutungen über diesen eigenartigen doppel selbstmord die selbst nur halb abgenagten restes hinein hinter vorgehaltenen händen dieser tot bewirkt dass die menschen nicht mehr an sich halten können und sich einer den anderen plötzlich scheuend hochaufbauen damit sie ein wenig besser ihre aussichten abschätzen können sie wollen entkommen aber wie wie bunte zierpolster nach einem gemickschlag so stehen sie versammeln die frauen ähnliches mitlichen hemispheren in dem man gern reißt wenn es hierzulande am dunkelsten die männer krampfhaft versucht ihre furzamkeit für sich zu behalten falls der tot als nächstes an ihren schlechtesten seiten zupfen sollte, brüderl kommen nicht einmal in dieser äußesten angst vor dem tot wollen sie ihren frauen etwas von sich preis geben denn die wollen immer gleich den preis wissen die besten stütke haben sie einander ohne dies längst gegenseitig im langen jahr aus den augen herausgepickt wo diese am schmerzesten sind da muss sogar der tot sich fügen und mit den resten freundet nehmen das blut bewegt sich regelmäßig blaziger schaum steigt von den wunschstücken dieser beiden toten an die oberfläche und nur die gefühle werden noch unverdichtet von den unständigen geäußert der schwarzer siro über ihr wohnen gegossen wurde mit den tieren mit den hupfen was jetzt manche die man vorher hier noch nie gesehen hat schweigen ihre worte suchen noch nach den unterprüften erst danach werden sie beruhig wieder ausschwirlen können gespräche weichen immer häufiger ab und nehmen die umfahrung übers wetter betreten, wenden manche sich weg in die doch ohne dies niemand auch nur einen fuß setzen würde dieser gestank ist intensiv wie eine herzensmeinung der man ausdruck verneilt wenn sie abgewiesen wird muss der hersteller sie wieder zurücknehmen die zwillig serge beben und schwanken schattenhaftes das von zwei ihrer fessen ledigen geschöpfen herhört sind er wie rauch in dünnem fuß unter den zincbleichdeckling hervor die neuen toten haben nicht mehr die qualität der älteren die von uns noch gründlichst abgedunst worden sind aber dann haben uns verwandtschaftliche gestalten gefehlt und wir mussten uns an der anfertigen diesmal aber genau nach unserem eben bild doch was ist das die alten traumatischen menschen, die inzwischen ganz zur luft geworden sind wollen die luftkoorte ihre heimat wieder erreichen, hallo gehören wohl den Nordenbecker und müssen jetzt nicht nur aufwachen sondern von neuem geboren werden ihr sauerteig liegt uns in gestalt von millionen aufgetriebene helfestückchen seit Jahrzehnten im hagen es hätte eine neu entstandene macht den gestorbenen die fessen abgenommen und sie büchsen im trock im schaffel unter den schaffel doch dieses tote paar sieht seine wahrheit derzeit noch nicht es fehlt ihnen beiden eine voraussetzung dafür die freiheit doch die scheinen sie nun gewinnen zu wollen die ehemalige bdm'er und der ehemalige eingeweckte aus der stürmischen staffen der tot lässt sie los er lässt sie von der langen leine und die rückholautomatikschein zu klemmern das gemischte doppeltier ist einfach nicht mehr einzuholen und das ganze paar mit seinem gräben schein wartet nur noch darauf dass dieses wilde paar ins freie versetzt ihm auch noch die ganze saune wegfließt und since it's recorded on how long we have to use the microphone good to see so we can have to move back so that we are okay let's take this one yes so maybe you both share so first of all I think a round of applause for Helga and for the effort such a beautiful quiet and yet intense deep reading of a text so complex beautifully translated and really both of you did not stand in front of the microphone if you say something otherwise people won't leave Helga has almost a similar tone of voice a quiet as Elfride has it's a quiet terror also in a way what she does first Gita listening to your is that the first time it was read the first time yes yes what comes to your mind when you heard it how well she's understood in speaking rather than in reading there is a rhythm in there really I don't yell out the window I'll be your mic stand that's okay what oh no it was really interesting to hear her read and hear the music coming out you've been a novel she comes from the theatre too and from music people who don't do music don't get her as if you don't have an ear and directors I attracted to her also in the theatre who understand music and that's from different from classical music to of course pop, punk everything this is I move my hands she comes from the theatre tell us a little bit but she started only one year theatre studies and then she I think that's when she had also her first nervous breakdown she's very very delicate under the other hand very tough but her health is her nerves and her whole being is subtle and quiet sometimes so what did we talk about her history in theatre yes and she is in Germany the best directors work with her and they make careers working with her just like Tina the actress too when it was performed in New York so people do you either love her or you have totally no relationship to you can't you refuse that world to really enter it very bravely I have anecdotes many her French director and she had over 6,000 emails for me it was very funny because the idioms of course the Viennese I totally understood the subtext and Viennese are very mean people they will very charmingly tell you something and mean the opposite if the Germans don't get it she needs a translator for the Germans because there is so much Austrian allusions to it one email was the translator she said they discussed some sexual choreography and he asked her because he wasn't quite sure and she wrote back he was very young he was like 26 you poor man you're so young and you have to deal with this so it was helpful for me too except the interesting thing is of course I knew the idioms he didn't get some of the allusions and she was very patient to both of us to explain what she means Helga how was it for you speaking the text I love this text she will love you why? period I love this text because it's completely delirious but it is also logical it is it mean it's funny and it needs a lot of breath to get through it so I was saying to Thea that I'm very happy that I sing with her lungs to get through the sentences so that you don't lose the meaning of the words I had a lot of fun I'm only sorry I didn't have a year to memorize it because that really would have been fun do you know one of her directors who she loves he always does it so it becomes irritating he has the actress first read the text then they tear it apart I think it's not respectful actually but she loves a broad comedy that's but her best director doesn't do that what did you struggle with when you were speaking but why did you have to stop and work with the text you mean just now because not in general when you went through the rehearsals what I don't think there was really any struggle except we would stop and laugh we were laughing tell us a little bit you directed Jack wasn't it funny Thea you directed Jack yet the women's project it was a great production thank you tell us what is your relation to yelling oh my god I love her work I'm obsessed I'm really obsessed what do I like about it but I like layers in her writing and I like how quickly she shifts from one subject to another but how he actually also how something that shouldn't be funny it is funny or how she goes quickly from different almost genres if I may say but I like musicality of her language I personally don't like linear writing so for me she's a special writer and artist that I really deeply deeply love because of everything that actually speaks to me also what she's talking about as well a lot of times a lot of plays that get sent to me and writing as she keeps sending me I'm from Basia Herzegovina Austria is not a very foreigner place for me probably for Pavel Ljurslovenkin right so so there's also for me cultural references as well but not only that I think that the writing itself is so challenging like how would you do with this right so Helga and I were meeting and we were like how much performative no performative and we were like let's just speak the language like let's just go through language and I think for would we how much time we had I think anyway it will be interesting like what you do next with it we were like and I also have to say that I when I work on Jackie I was introduced to Yelnik when I was in when I was a student so I didn't know Gitta yet so when Gitta came to rehearsals with Jackie that was complete revelation because then Gitta was like you can have fun with it I'm like okay tell us a little bit about your approach when you directed it the text of Yelnik are pages full of words let deserts we say in Germany there's often you know indication who says what is it like like on a novel there's no difference in here so how did you approach for example that work and for the people who are listening thinking can I do a Yelnik or not most people say no most people have never seen a work also would say when they get the script they say this cannot be performed but it can so tell us a little bit what do you think of it how did you approach it I approached it very traditionally so when I was pitching a show because I didn't self-produce I was pitching a show at the theater so I was like I was trying to convince them to take it they were kind of no and I was doing all kinds of way to please have a look again right because everybody were saying it's a poem that's how was looked at it right but I was able to convince them to do it but how I did it is really traditionally I break down all text analysis so I knew every dot punctuation line in the in the in the writing and then after that I worked with Tina Banco she also break down very traditionally so and then we were looking we were trying to find it in the space I think just because how I am as a director always want to find in the space so we're finding in the space and of course we were not sure what we're doing but then we get to came and she says oh it all kinds of a lot of things that it's interesting it's of course Brechtian and it comes from this performative aspects and that totally like unlocked everything well it's a lot of times I think like or German writers since they're usually first out in England and everything a British actor says sounds radiocated it was with me and German actors and Austrians but the Austrians are really funny of people then we seek we think high literature and then we have to do something very special but her language actually although she has very the way she makes she does her word games they are very sophisticated but it's based totally on everyday language everyday and she actually she said Karl Kraus the great Austrian satirist was a big influence to her and she's a totally normal person a very well bred Austrian young lady she was beautiful when she was saying she's still beautiful but very well bred how you know she will serve you tea that's all she can cook she said and the funniest thing was when they asked maybe you was probably told that the producer Gillifrieder can we will she do it and I had a sense for that you guys can do this and he charmed the hell out of her when he sat her house and he jumped on her table on the terrace I'll never forget and she thinks you're the greatest genius well question to you guys to Pablo and Kelly we just saw your film a silent film how was it for you hearing the text take the mic please I mean like I said we wrecked get this first 100 pages with alternate words for some of the you know I was just color coded with the three words per one word of German just leaving herself options which I felt like was wonderful to see a work to see the work of a translator and in a way that then that is also what we did we translated it into the language which is a different language language of cinema language that we spoke whether it's also language of theater and the landscape painting any other other languages you know there's just so much translation going on so it was all about versions many different versions and trying to in a way creating a palimpsest of all that information that we were able to gather including meeting with Elfride and Gita and I think she loves Gita more than anybody in the world that's Kelly also it was also really important to us to realize that one of the biggest inspirations for her was this movie this Carnival of Souls by her Carvey which was an American B movie made with I think $5,000 on a weekend or something and it was about an organist who doesn't know that she's dead and so I'm sure Elfride identified heavily with that lead but it was interesting to know that she had like I really got from her that she takes low and high totally and she always says the brave song you have to know that to put the high down and the low up that's what her favorite thing to do is ours too and she always votes that she always says you pull that down and then you put up Gita for your question before we come to the audience what are the most successful translations Pavel said of her work onto stage from the directors who you have seen so many of it when does it work well I get tired of directors now especially men who sorry who use her to do their vision of it now her favorite director had one where he because she has a very specific hairdo so he was having a wig and then he was throwing it around and trampling on it and that to me was just to me actually Yossi Bila who is a very traditional but also... Anglos Novos group in Vienna no, get rid of Yossi you have seen him? he did Rachnitz which is a very strong play and he does it very fine he has posted the English theater and he started in Israel actually and then he came he does it with a psychological approach but you do push it to another level it's not just casual talking you can do that either you have a feeling for that or you can do that it's harder to find an American theater because we have to find the nice things in a character and there is nothing nice to find in a reader's character yeah I think Hanna Muller often said that what he didn't like about state theater that actors stand in front of the text or they wear the text like a very expensive bag from Hermès but he says they should not stay in front of it just show the text he liked dialect because of that like Brecht did actually I think in the successful ways trusting the text instead of we have to do something that people don't fall asleep which is not true but she sort of has her own group of actors who relate to her by the way the actors in the foreign movie which wanted about her in the concentration camp who was also a nominee for the Oscar this year she was in production yeah so let's come to some questions or observations from the audience anything you want to say since we are in Haaland we will use the microphone maybe you introduce shortly yourself I want to talk about failure okay we had this discussion so fascinating it may be a story the producer told me but she told me that after a couple of rehearsals a few weeks you came to the producer's office and said I'm going to direct this as a failure and then there was a big thing you can't do this but even to do a silent movie is the most beautiful poetic answer to this so that's so brilliant I can't get over it how you dragged that out and there's a scene in that movie when the person was the star of David and the swastika dance I heard there was some controversy in Germany when you saw that movie and to me it's the key it's the key to the world it takes place they were willing to play yeah and of course the palachin in the face Gita I want to ask you a question what is it like for you to hear your text in the mouth of an African American woman I liked the storytelling it was wonderful but then I don't come from a country which has that baggage so for me it was great and I liked there's a little distance and I liked the mystery which was in there so and the music in your language and the quietness that's how she talks I never take for granted that it means something in particular to an American audience to have speaking a text that technically doesn't belong to them I thought of what it would be to have this kind of dead coming back in our country and for me that was a different kind of context I think I thought about all those historical things you also not forget but the Austrian is not that important I think it brings in universal of this the dead coming back and you pass it on to your children and you can have the furies we only have to look at our world today I was actually getting goosebumps I was really captured something of today but she has a name and she's called Cassandra in Germany because she a lot of times her sensitivity sees ahead of time and I think her language sometimes gets into Cassandra's feet but she's a very down to earth great humor she's kind and generous and people are always shocked when we tell them that because there's that tradition in Austria of the Nest-Beschmutz so it's one who soils their nest and I guess she got a lot of unfair blowback for some of her work when she was very critical of Austria well she attacked the Nazis she told us Bernhard always from there and she just says it out yeah but people translated into that that is her personality trait and she's very shy that's why they think she's arrogant and that she isn't at all but she's extremely shy that's not just an attitude and she's extremely smart and that's that's threatening but maybe let's see if there is any comment or question show one and then two hi everybody I wanted to ask if any of you saw Isabella Auper for 48 psychosis when it came to BAM the Claude Regis I saw it because she as you remember she didn't move I remember she just stood there and delivered the text there was a scrim behind her and there was a guy there but he didn't say anything either this beautiful performance Helga I struck me that maybe this was a way into this wall of language that Jalenek is providing just actor I'm sorry I didn't see your film I wish I could have I had to teach but I would love to have seen what you did but it's just a reaction that I wonder if this isn't maybe an approach just the stasis maybe could be helpful and let just the voice and an attitude and the words come I don't know it's just it is I think the key is because this dissipates and distracts you from what the text is so I couldn't I had to move a little bit because my hair was in the text and I couldn't see it but in general it's my favorite way to be on stage is to just be still and I think a lot of that Bob Wilson also who really demands that you just be still by the way the film will be in the Segal Film Festival or two weeks available and we'll be able to see sorry and stillness not just in the body but inside still in quiet this is more a comment thank you so much that you know I've listened to Elfride through my mother and sometimes the language is so abstract that it's hard and I felt that there was a spiritual connection when you asked about the African American connection to it I'm not quite sure what that was because you transform it I wasn't seeing what I was feeling was the soul and the spirit which I think this language at times can negate which you could easily go histrionic or a different way but to understand the silence that you said it really moved me and I just wanted to share that with you thank you that was not to try to make her more accessible but just have that tone yeah that was very beautiful my grief is my daughter she loves you you know anyway it's a family affair today we can say these things one more or two just to say to you you know race is never ever ever a casual thing and that the work always seems to be to find a spiritual connection in whatever you do it doesn't mean I am not angry it doesn't mean that I'm not all the things that a human on this planet can be but I do not ever ever think it's casual to hear an African American person recite any text and so this is also part of the joke for me to stand first of all to be called Helga what's more funny than that and then to it's funny that I'm called no one is ever looking for me and that this could also as I said be seen as a text that doesn't belong to me and it completely belongs to me yeah but it is the weird thing that people either connect and really get something how do they get that the language or the spirit which you either accept then I would say you know really thank you for coming first of all to Helga for this exquisite reading from the language you translated so I thought it was a very very special reading we do a lot of readings here at the Seagland some of you guys come here it really was a sublime rendition also of an actor of a text so thank you for having us thank you