Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Heiner Goebbels’ EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED AND WOULD HAPPEN philosophically takes on human history on a huge scale

• By drediman
• June 8, 2019
• No Comments

Heiner Goebbels’ “Everything That Happened and Would Happen” at the Park Avenue Armory.

Yesterday evening, for the second night in a row (after having attended Triptych at the Brooklyn Academy of Music), I paid witness to a fascinating, large-scale theatrical fusion. That’s because I attended a performance of Heiner Goebbels’ hugely ambitious Everything That Happened and Would Happen, which is in the midst of its North American premiere at the Park Avenue Armory (the piece was originally performed last year in Manchester, England). Mr. Goebbels, who returns to the Armory for the first time since memorably directing Die Materie (the sheep! the zeppelin!), Louis Andriessen’s notable work of abstract music theater, in 2016. For his latest staged manifesto – a Park Avenue Armory commission – the experimental theater-maker and composer has attempted nothing less than to chronicle the last 120 years in European history through music, movement, film, and theater.

Few indoor performance canvases are as epic as the Park Avenue Armory’s Wade Thompson Drill Hall, and few directors are as comfortable taking advantage of its full scale as Mr. Goebbels is. Indeed, for Everything That Happened and Would Happen, he boldly uses the full length of the drill hall, and it’s a sight one typically doesn’t encounter when theatergoing. Throughout the two hour plus performance (beware, there is no intermission), countless disparate traditional theater scenic elements are in perpetual stages of being constructed and/or deconstructed – seemingly by chance – by a tireless 11-member company. It’s all set to Mr. Goebbles’ dissonant, organic score, which is played by a small live band on the peripheries of the stage action. On paper, this cacophonous metaphorical conceit sounds terribly exciting, because what can be more dramatic than human history itself?

There’s no doubt that Mr. Goebbels has a gift for creating striking stage pictures (as he brashly demonstrated with his audacious and legendary tableaus in Die Materie). But where Everything That Happened and Would Happen is arguably and ironically lacking is in its quality as a cohesive dramatic experience, which I suspect the director isn’t concerned with – for better or worse. What Mr. Geobbels seems to be interested in is creating a philosophical, albeit objective, view of the nature of human history (and by extent, society) itself. What he dispassionately uncovers through the panoramic staging is the futility and flimsiness of the structures we, as humans, construct for ourselves. Conceptually, it’s a compelling thesis, but the glacial lull of the experience frustratingly takes time and patience to get to the punchline. Is it worth the effort? That’s legitimately debatable. If it’s any indication, last night, there were more walk-outs than I’ve seen in quite a while.

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EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED AND WOULD HAPPEN
Off-Broadway, Performance
The Wade Thompson Drill Hall at the Park Avenue Armory
2 hours, 10 minutes (without an intermission)
Through June 9