Heiner Goebbels

Max Black
UA: April 1998 · Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne E.T.E. · Directed by: Heiner Goebbels
DSE: 14.05.1998 · das TAT im Bockenheimer Depot, Frankfurt am Main · Directed by: Heiner Goebbels
Why do people hit their head when they realise something they should have known before? How contrary is the spectrum of actions of a hand? Why and for how long do humans’ nonverbal agreements work?

Max Black is a seeker. He is a natural scientist and artist. Every detail of daily life, every tiny snippet of a thought construction leads him to playing with logic. This scientific curiosity can become manic if, for example, he calculates the countless ways in which humans can rest their face on their hand and elbow.
Thinking is an untameable passion, furious and enormous. In a conversation with himself, Max Black analyses his surroundings and himself. Precise observation and accurate description culminate in a composition made of sounds, words, notes and images in every scene.

Heiner Goebbels has his scientist and artist talk to Paul Valéry, Georg Christoph Lichtenberg and Ludwig Wittgenstein. An “Orpheusiade of an artist's life” (Verena Auffermann) develops, which also addresses the suffering of a thinking self – subjective, but universal at the same time.

“Me. That’s my instrument. I play very different melodies on myself. All I can do – all I have been: that makes an instrument.”