"ICH STERBE. I'M DYING. Я умираю" by Toxic Dreams at brut/Vienna

brut presents now (25-29.11.2009) a new piece by Toxic Dreams: "ICH STERBE. I'M DYING. Я умираю". I have had a pleasure to participate in this production performing in a film (a part of the whole evening show) a role of russian student Lev Rabenek who was witnessing a death of Chekhov.

From a web-site of Toxic Dreams:

For the last installment of the Realism or Uncle Vanya we take a detour; instead of another deconstruction of the play, we tell a different story, the story of Chekhov's death. The famous writer died in 1904; since then the facts, concerning his death, are told, and told, in a way that will make him turn in his grave.

How did Chekhov die? Why can't we get a realistic description of what really happened in his death bed, in a hotel room in Germany? How come, a writer that so insisted on describing life the way it is, cannot get a proper description of his death the way it was?

The story of Chekhov's death is a Rashomon worthy of Kurosawa. The story of his death and the way it was viewed, the subjectivity of the observer, serves as ironic contra point to the so called objectivity of Chekhov's writing. What is real in the realism of Chekhov's death, and how speech can describe it is the center of the performance.

(http://www.toxicdreams.at/)

Filmcast Cezary Tomaszewski (Anton P. Tschechow), Irene Coticchio (Olga Knipper), Anna Mendelssohn (Autorin), Otmar Wagner (Doktor Schwöhrer), Radek Hewelt (Leo Rabeneck), Justin Poole (Portier)
Voiceovers Evgeniia Lianskaya, Lena Kvadrat, Wolfgang Weitlaner, Oleg Soulimenko, Justin Poole, Samuel Machto, Olivier Brasselet
Live Cast Cezary Tomaszewski (Anton P. Tschechow), Anna Mendelssohn (Autorin)
Hausbau und Kameras Yosi Wanunu, Otmar Wagner, Claribel Koss und Michael Strohmann
Komposition, Film- und Live Editing Michael Strohmann
Haus Otmar Wagner
Regieassistenz Claribel Koss
Text und Regie Yosi Wanunu
Produktion Kornelia Kilga

Links:
http://www.brut-wien.at/start.php?navid=detail&id=329
http://www.toxicdreams.at/
http://ongoing.nightmares.toxicdreams.at/wordpress/ich-sterbe/