A Fakementary

The performance The Chosen One will tell the story of Amelie Bauer, an Austrian rising star leftist politician who operated at the outset of the new millennium, and whose sudden disappearance still haunts her most fervent followers. Ms. Bauer’s speaking technique, singing voice, and approach, often referred to as “The most radical leftist method in the world,“ fused classical Marxist and Socialist doctrines with new-age convictions and practices, all scored with the popular sounds of the happy 1960s. Her brand of the ‘new left’ infused even the smallest political thought with sex, death, and violence.

If you are scratching your head trying to remember who Amelie Bauer is, don’t bother. We are going to make her up from scratch. We are going to craft her legacy as a 21st-century leftist political guru with the help of ‘found text’ from journals, diaries, news clips, and other historical material all made up by us. Some of this material will be based on real historical documents adapted to sound like Amelie Bauer’s doctrine.

The conceit of The Chosen One is that we are reenacting the last month of Amelie Bauer in Austria, including her final speech before she vanished. Her sudden and unexpected departure left her followers struggling to find direction and reaffirm their commitment to the cause. In the process of dealing with her disappearance, we see her small inner team trying to come to terms with losing their guru. It is a metatheatrical meditation on collectivity, faith, and trust. While telling her story, it should become clear that members of Amelie Bauer’s political group must look to each other, rather than outside themselves, for direction and approval.

The Chosen One will bounce between interior monologues, group interactions, diaries, and letters from members of the political team that express a sense of desperation, inadequacy, and frustration inherent to the process of creating a meaningful political movement for the country.

By the way, there are rumors that Amelie Bauer still lives somewhere in an unknown place, running the Institute for Radical Life, or IRL.

Performers: Susanne Gschwendtner, Markus Zett, Anat Stainberg, Florian Tröbinger, Barca Baxant
Live Band: Didi Kern, Philipp Quehenberger, Michael Strohmann
Music by Michael Strohmann
Set Design: Paul Horn
Written and directed by Yosi Wanunu
Produced by Kornelia Kilga