Reigen's Round of Sex, Death, and Love

Author: Pascale LaFountain

"We would just like to note that no birth control was used in this performance." Although Richard Lutjens' '03 statement was shocking, it was in no way out of line given the themes of the German Department's play about sexuality and relationships in 1900 Vienna and today.
Lutjens' comment to the audience followed a smashing performance of "Twist," directed by Assistant Professor of German Bettina Matthias and German Teaching Assistant Yasmin Rabiyan. The play went up in the Chateau on Saturday evening with the help of alumna Carina Beyer '00.
"Twist" is Matthias' adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler's play "Reigen," written and first performed in turn of the century Vienna.
The actors in the play were all students of German: Lutjens, Elif Kiratli '03, Alexander Rhinehart '05, Adam Rahal '05, Colin Ashby-Kuhlman '05, Ryan Gamble '06 and Katherine Peters '06.
The original 10-act play is based on a dance in which partners change regularly, with each scene announcing the arrival of a new partner for the character from the previous scene. This constructs a "Round Dance" of sex, love and death.
Matthias preserved the general structure of the play. Ashby-Kuhlman provided the twists, namely in the form of an additional gay scene and several entr'actes written as a 500-project this semester.
Loosely based on excerpts from another Schnitzler play, "Anatol," the intervening dialogues between a handsome dandy called Anatol, played by Gamble, and his rational friend, Max, played by Ashby-Kuhlman, take a bit of critical distance from the play.
Ashby-Kuhlman says of his insertions, "While I was writing them, I had a hard time imagining how they'd work with the rest of the play, but after rehearsing and performing the play with them there, I think both parts fed off of each other."
The Grand Salon was overflowing with supporters, as students sat on the floor and stood in front of the doors to see the production. The audience's most energetic response was directed toward the added gay scene in which Rhinehart asks his secretary, played by Lutjens, to step a little closer to look at his "long, slender wrist," until he is standing behind the secretary and the two faces are only inches away.
Lutjens said of the scene, "This is an aspect of sexual life that, although not talked about back then, did exist, and I think that this scene succeeded in 'outing' a very real, although hidden, aspect of the times."
The play explores sex roles and stereotypes 1900 Vienna, but the questions it asks are still relevant today. Why do people desire prostitutes? What is marriage for? Is your partner telling the truth? Is your innocent-seeming wife telling the truth? Is homosexuality "unholy?"
Almost all of the rehearsal for the play was done in German. Gamble commented, "Sometimes we would go to dinner and keep talking German without even realizing it."
The German theatre troupe will depart on April 30 to participate in a competition at Mount Holyoke, a competition Middlebury won last year.