Ende einer Liebe

In the beginning was the word … and in the end they saw that it was not good. Words can promise, proclaim and reveal. Mutual recognition is manifested in oaths of love, intended to lend permanence to what is fleeting, give love a form of corporeity, even if it is made of words. Then again, language is blunt; the speaking body is a weapon, the reckoning as sharp as a razor blade. French author and prominent director Pascal Rambert has tailored the German version of “Clôture de l’amour”, this dialogue at the end of a love affair, to suit his actors Jens Harzer and Marina Galic. He painfully intertwines their ways of speaking, the expressions of their bodies with all that remains of love. She listens to him first, and then it is his turn. All dialogue has failed – this becomes all too clear in their silent acceptance of the other’s lament. The anatomy of love becomes visible, it is an autopsy performed on a live body. The promise of love falters in the face of social realities, of perceptions of gender identity, of aspirations and actualities. Since its celebrated 2011 world premiere in Avignon, the piece has been on a very special world tour: From Moscow via New York to Tokyo, Pascal Rambert himself has directed it in various languages. As director of the Théâtre de Gennevilliers / T2G, he is the head of one of the most interesting venues for contemporary theatre in Paris.