Passage of Midday

In 1905 Paul Claudel had two passions: the Catholic Church and a fervent affair with a married woman. “Passage of Midday” is both a dramatic confession and an attempt to rid himself of his sins. Jossi Wieler and his dramaturg Tilman Raabke have solved the problem of reshaping this language laden with religious associations into a conflict which can be appreciated in contemporary terms by maintaining a precise tension throughout. Claudel’s story of the beautiful Ysé (Nina Kunzendorf) and her relationships with three different men – her uninspiring husband De Ciz (Jochen Noch), the virile Amalric (Hans Kremer) and the enigmatic Chinese Mesa (Stephan Bissmeier) – is made to seem intelligent and new.
T.B.

“It is through the convincing solutions that Jossi Wieler has found in both language and body language to the apparently insoluble problem of speaking Claudel’s oaths of love and non-love today, that this production has become the most devastating analysis of love which the theatre has seen in recent years.” (FR)
Jossi Wieler is “the most rigorous educator in the German-speaking theatre.” (Die Zeit)