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Circus Elysium 'The Last Days Of Mankind' Bosco Theatre Season closed 1915: and with World War 1 well underway the people of Vienna were receiving joyful news of ongoing victories from the battlefronts, many totally oblivious of the actual horror of the fighting and the manipulative greed and power driven motives of their politicians and military leaders (sound familiar?). During this time, one of Europe's most revered satirists, Karl Kraus, would, through hearsay from powerful connections, correspondence from soldiers and their families and eavesdropping the conversations of the common folk on the street, collect and collate such vignettes into what would eventually result in an 800 page tome known as 'The Last Days Of Mankind'. Confidently predicting the war to be the decline of civilisation, Klaus would take to cafˇs and footpaths and soapbox his wordings, invoking shocked and unfavourable reactions. In this production veteran Austrian born thespian Justus Neumann takes on many of the characters found in Klaus' journal of war by first introducing the setting and then, in an incredibly accurate switching of voice and action nuance, proceed to re-enact their exchanges. Sonically backed by Julius Schwing on simple, but chilling effective electric guitar, Neumann proves to be a master storyteller and a perfect medium as he channels voices that otherwise would go unheard. Voices which, whether for good or bad, still echo around the world today.  |
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