L'Institut Benjamenta at Ocean Nord

It has often been hard to convince Jon to come out to the theatre in French, but it's getting better. Last night I managed to get him to come with me to watch "L'Institut Benjamenta" at the Theatre Ocean Nord. It's been a while that I have been thinking of going to this theatre, and I don't know why I haven't done it before. In any case, the visual experience of "L'Institut" was a worthy first time.

For sure the most impressive thing about the production -- at least for me with my limited grasp of the French language subtleties -- was the super cool light effects they used for the set design. Honestly, I don't know if I am being naïve in my statement, but I don't think I have ever seen such solid-seeming lights in my life. I mean it -- it felt like you could touch it. There was a wall of light on the stage, through which the characters could disappear into infinity. It made me think of my friend Audrey-Anne Bouchard, a director and lights designer. Indeed she is right -- you can create wonders with litghs. Just lights.

The first time I had ever heard about Robert Walser was watching RW 1er dialogue at the Rideau de Bruxelles, last year, right before it got the prize as best show. I liked it a lot. Then I saw RW 2e dialogue and it was super beautiful too. Robert Waiser's poetic subservience seems to resonate strongly with me.


Despite the similarities with RW, this latest adaptation, L'Intitut Benjamenta, had a different feel. It seemed to me that the main character, Jakob von Gunten (by the way, the name of the original novel the play was adapted from), although in search of becoming a big zero (to quote the director) still preserved some sense of self protection and dignity. Granted, not a very strong sense of self, but there was in his words nonetheless a certain resistance to the arbitrary rules to which he was confronted, which was not at all present in the main character(s) of the RW version.


"L'Institut" was definitely more concerned with the text, and indeed, it felt like the words coming from the characters mouths came from the pages of a novel. I don't mean this as negative though. RW paid strong attention to movement and music. L'institut, on the other hand, didn't have any sound effects whatsoever. Movement was quite important, but in a different way. There wasn't a purely corporal attempt at communication. The characters moved extremely soberly, holding themselves upright, showing how they were ready to accept the rules.


I asked Jon how he reacted to the play's visuals and body language, to compare with my reactions, and see how much of the story was related to the text. In fact, he also felt like Jakob's desire to erase himself might not be so genuine as the director hints at in the program blurb. Jakob says that is what he wants, but his personality always seem to get in the way. A visit to the original novel might prove useful in elucidating the actual intents of Jakob.


I cannot stop myself from noticing the treatment given to the only woman in the show. Sister Benjamenta is portrayed in a sexy librarian/ stern headmistress look, and her attitude is not far from that either. The production definitely plays the love affair card between Jakob and her, which to be fair, is in the novel. But the Jakob in the play seemed a little more attracted to Fraülein Benjamenta than his written counterpart. In more than one occasion he express a certain jealousy, especially about her way to deal with the other pupil Kraus. I do have more ideas about Sister Benjamenta, but since I didn't read the novel yet, I don't want to risk being biased. 


One interesting point made by J. M. Coetzee in The Genius of Robert Walser is that "Jakob’s cynicism about civilization and about values in general [...] point prophetically toward the petit-bourgeois type that, in times of greater social confusion, would find Hitler’s Brownshirts so attractive." I could see that parallel in the Jakob of the play at Ocean Nord, but surely not without his inner conflict.

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