An imposing backdrop with history: the inner courtyard of Gutenberg Castle creates a unique atmosphere for good theater performances. Even the walk up to the castle, the view from the castle hill over the valley and the knowledge that this special place has been inhabited and used as a place of worship for thousands of years puts visitors in a special mood. For the upcoming performance season from mid-June to the beginning of July 2023, we have chosen William Shakespeare's play "What You Will". This comedy is one of the highlights of Shakespeare's oeuvre and is one of his most frequently performed works.
William Shakespeare is - quite undisputedly - considered the greatest playwright in history because he creates something that makes theater exciting, entertaining, thought-provoking and stimulating at the same time, something that defines theater: ambivalence. There are always tragic moments in his comedies, in his dramas there are fools, confusion, happiness in love and plenty of punchlines. At the same time, he is the first author to bring his characters to life through something we now call psychology. And all this, for example, and especially in "What You Want": A duke is incredibly in love with Lady Olivia, who persistently rejects him, supposedly because she has been mourning - for ages, it seems to the duke - for her brother who died in an accident. A shipwrecked girl disguises herself as a man and enters the service of this very duke, falls in love with him, but is sent as a messenger of love to the beautiful lady, who in turn immediately falls in love with the handsome and eloquent boy - suddenly her grief no longer plays a role. At the same time, the opportunistic steward and a rather daft knight court Olivia, less out of love and more out of self-interest. Only her uncle Sir Tobias seems happy, he has a wonderful liaison with Olivia's lady-in-waiting - without caring about class differences - and a few bottles of good wine are enough for him...
Gutenberg Castle © TAK Theater Liechtenstein
Nikolaus Büchel, the director of "What You Want"
First of all, there are about ten great roles for good actors, precisely because the characters have their contradictions. Just like in life...
Then all of Shakespeare's poetry and wit is completely unbound by time. All of this still applies, regardless of whether you play it in jeans or in historical costumes.
But the wit is never cheap or even thigh-slapping, it arises from the subjective distress of the characters, as with the great comedians Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton.
In some plays, but here in particular, Shakespeare refers very decidedly to the driving force of Eros, but even this never becomes cheap, remains ambiguous, poetic and enchanting, even if sometimes "unstable".
When Shakespeare is set in existing architecture, for example in an open-air festival play, the setting must allow for these many levels, rapid changes, sharp breaks - from a drinking bout with corresponding songs to an insatiable longing for love and vice versa. In this respect, Gutenberg Castle provides an ideal backdrop for the two castles in this play.
June 15 to July 2, 2023
