115. “L'Interieur”

Drama by Maurice Maeterlinck. German by Stockhausen. Arranged and staged for the stage by Zickel
Performance at the Urania Theater, Berlin

A Maeterlinck performance is a task that is as difficult as it is rewarding. The poet who avoids the conflicts of life that most preoccupy dramatists, and who instead wants to portray the deepest, most intimate emotions that go on behind the everyday expressions of man at the bottom of the soul, must make very special demands on the stage. In Maeterlinck's view, strong passions and coarse human relationships are not what show us the human soul in its true form. The passion of Othello and the fate of Desdemona are processes that do not correspond to the true. When I meet an unknown being for the first time, something can happen in my mind that is deeper, truer and more meaningful than that passion and that fate. Maeterlinck wants to portray what is deeper than words, truer than great passion. That is why he would prefer to dispense with the means of speech on stage altogether. He wants the events in this little drama "L'Interieur" and in similar ones he has created to be represented by puppets. A family is sitting around a table in a room. We see them through a window. There is a garden around the house. Two strangers are standing in the dark garden. A member of the family has drowned. The strangers talk about the accident. One of the strangers, an old man, speaks of the feelings that the misfortune brings up in his soul. He is supposed to tell the family about the terrible thing that has happened to them. Everything that happens comes to a head at the moment when the old man enters the room to make the announcement. A drama of emotions plays out in front of our souls. Sensations for which we need no words and no strong actions.

In a highly commendable manner, Stockhausen and Zickel staged this poignant event in the small theater hall of the Urania. Anything grossly theatrical was avoided. The example definitely deserves imitation.