“Wo Du nicht bist“ – a piece about Happiness

God has kissed this troupe on the forehead. “Nico and the Navigators” was first presented by Nicola Hümpel in 1998 at the Bauhaus Dessau, then became a regular attraction at the Sophiensaele Berlin and is still a beloved insiders’ tip - the world over. Following guest appearances at theatre festivals, the Vienna Festwochen and further afield, they now come from the Bregenzer Festspiele to their Berlin home-base with a new production, enchanting their public with the collaboratively developed piece regarding happiness “Wo Du nicht bist”. “Wherever I am not is beautiful” is not only the grievance of today’s youthful melancholic. He can look back to Franz Schubert who preceded him with his song “Der Wanderer”: “There where you are not, that’s where you’ll find happiness”. A “beloved opponent” - represented here in the texts assembled from Greek, Roman, German and English philosophers as well as texts by Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus and the singer Francoise Hardy - but so difficult to grab hold of. How does one seize, trap, hold and not just dream of it? The eight actors (Niels Bovri, Christoph Glaubacker, Anne Paulicevich, Verena Schonlau, Patric Schott, Andreas Schwankl, Gerd Lukas Storzer, Miyoko Urayama) ponder this in German, English and French, and thus develop, thoughtfully, playfully, flippantly and comically, out their own personalities, a happy, brave yet humble, exceptional kind of theatre. There are no assertions, no demands, only a marvelling, inquisitive probing of the self and the world. This leads to amusing games such as looking for falling stars and making a silent wish; to the New Year’s ritual where every grape spat out signifies a tiny aspiration. On Oliver Proske’s once again Bauhaus-lucid stage they can play with balls, sled, bucket and water. They can splash, browse through books, lose themselves in their thoughts, make confessions or allow themselves to say that a person works so hard only because he lacks the talent for happiness. On the other hand there are people who do not wish to have their misery, or simply their dearth of happiness, as with Marlene Dietrich and Felix Hollaender’s “Fear of Being Happy”, stolen from them. What has here arisen by means of Nicola Hümpel’s direction, of month-long common invention, getting a feeling for and testing out, is a tableau of thoroughly contemporary romanticism. No Biedermeier attitude that sticks, in its own home, its head graciously and hungry for knowledge in the sand, instead a thoughtful poetry, a playful melancholy, a treat for heart and brain, that lights the way to a picturesque future. Nico and the Navigators locate the sorrow for the absence of and the hope for the happiness desired, and the proximity of life and death, in conjunction with the nine marvellous musicians of “Franui” who originate from a mountain village in East Tirol. They have made eighteen of Franz Schubert’s Lieder wholly their own and in their pavilion evoking a music-box have produced a soundscape of sad, earthy magic and pious rapture utilising dulcimer, harp, guitar, accordion, tuba and contrabass. Responsible for both dance and funeral music in their village, here, touchingly, they provide them simultaneously. Thus the performance attains a metaphysical dimension: the poetry and the melancholy make for a seriousness that the performers know just when to break. They bring grace and charm - laughter with a tear in the buttonhole. They play reflectively with the quest for happiness so, and prepare themselves to renounce wisdom. A little soirée bringing great joy to the enthralled spectator - worth the journey.

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