Franz von Strolchen
EMPIRE: Rooting for the Anti-Hero (2024)
Performance
Unknown photographer
Unknown photographer
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.
Christian Winkler (1981, Graz), a.k.a. Franz von Strolchen, is an author and director. He frequently deals with the boundaries between reality and fiction and the depiction of social dynamics in which the seemingly ordinary can turn into the astonishing. His works have been shown at Theaterhaus Jena; Thalia Theater, Hamburg; Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin; Kampnagel, Hamburg; Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz, Berlin; Luzerner Theater; and MOT Festival, Skopje, among others. Winkler lives in Hamburg.
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
Education event
24.9., following the performance
Eat and Greet
22.9., 17:00
24.9., 25.9., 26.9., 27.9., 20:00
In German, Indonesian, and Dutch
With German and English surtitles
Theater am Lend
Wiener Straße 58a
8020 Graz ♿
18/14 euros
Duration: ca. 90 min.
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
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
Education event
24.9., following the performance
Eat and Greet