Franz von Strolchen
EMPIRE: Rooting for the Anti-Hero (2024)
Performance
Franz von Strolchen, EMPIRE: Rooting for the Anti-Hero (2024), performance, photo: steirischer herbst / Wolf Silveri
Franz von Strolchen, EMPIRE: Rooting for the Anti-Hero (2024), performance, photo: steirischer herbst / Wolf Silveri
Franz von Strolchen, EMPIRE: Rooting for the Anti-Hero (2024), performance, photo: steirischer herbst / Wolf Silveri
Dates
22.–28.9.2024
Details
22.9., 17:00
24.9., 25.9., 26.9., 27.9.24, 20:00
Location
Theater am Lend, Graz
Production specifics
Produced by Theater am Lend and steirischer herbst ’24 in coproduction with the Institute for Ethnomusicology at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz
Project sponsor: Energie Graz
In 1934, at the height of its success, Grazer SC Straßenbahn—one of the largest Styrian football clubs in the interwar period—toured the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). In a total of nineteen matches, the team won one game after another.
Diaries, eyewitness accounts, and photo albums of this quasi-legendary journey paint the picture of an exotic, carefree adventure trip. Colonialism, slavery, and the belief in white supremacy are not discussed. The players appear not to have realized that their winning streak was no coincidence and that football was a means of the colonial masters to demonstrate the superiority of Europeans over Asians.
Based on the available records, director Franz von Strolchen creates a docu-fictional musical slideshow. Together with a twelve-piece gamelan orchestra and a performer from Jakarta, he reconstructs SC Straßenbahn’s journey as a tragicomic story of Austrian imperialism.
Direction and concept: Franz von Strolchen
Text and research: Christian Winkler
Stage: Andrea Cozzi und Hanga Balla
Dramaturge: Maria Leitgab
Performance: Marten Schmidt
Live music / composition: Anna Anderluh
Artistic director of Gamelan Nyai Rara Saraswati: Sarah Weiss
Live music: Gamelan Nyai Rara Saraswati (KUG)
Stage management: Ronny Priesching
Retrospective
Retrospective