Before the waves come

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It’s early evening in late June. Swimmers and sun bathers mix with a group performers, technicians and sound artists on Zurich’s Saffainsel*. Blankets, costumes and a collection of wetsuits are hung out to dry while a pair of boats circle the island. Declan Whitaker, Lucia Gugerli and Pierre Piton take time out from their rehearsal schedule to talk to us about how their collaboration with Meg Stuart came about, their process of working together and what we can expect from this very site-specific choreographic experiment.

How did this collaboration with Meg Stuart, yourselves and Theater Spektakel come about?
Up until now we’ve invited a choreographer each year to work with us on a project or stage production, starting with Simone Aughterlony in a re-staging of her piece The Best and The Worst Of Us. Then we asked Isabel Lewis to collaborate with us and for our third year we thought it would be just great to work with Meg. We asked her but we didn’t think she’d actually say yes. Of course, Meg already had a strong connection with Zurich and it turns out she was already in contact with Theater Spektakel about the possibilities of working here. And so she yeah. She thought that might actually be a thing to do, to collaborate. She was already quite interested in producing a piece of work outside of a theatre space and she was more willing to explore other formats. I think she mentioned it in the first exchanges we had, so I think it was important for her.

Where did the idea of working with the water come from? How early was that part of the project?
From right at the beginning, I would say. We had various different talks and conversations with different specialists around the topic of water.

So could you tell us something about your creative process?
It's been really about just trying and trying and and keep trying and that, um, we've really been in a space of just continuing to generate and not, not necessarily try to formulate or put it into a shape. Until recently of course, then the pressure arrives of creating a show. So that was a bit present, creating and resisting that and then finally embracing it and to be like, okay then, well if they they really want a spectacle….!

But in the beginning it really felt like just this continual attempt to keep trying. Yeah, And a big part of the mix of material was also to just kind of meet Kristof and Maria and Isabella, who Meg brought in, and them meeting us.

We spent a lot of time as well discovering the island and when it was created. What is this landscape? What information is already here? I think that was a big part of the research. Where are we? Who are these people in the water? What is this world we are creating? So it was a lot about creating fantasy together. Meg works a lot with imagination and images, as you may know. And so building up this world all together, thinking about who we are within this world and how we can communicate with each other through this medium of the water and on the island.

We started by accumulating a lot of knowledge on different aspects of the water. And then once we were on site, we either mentioned something we've read or seen or Meg had an idea and we’d just try it out, we’d improvise. So suddenly she might say, Oh, we should do a ritual for the water. And so we’d try it out. And then slowly she sees images and it's like she has this photographic eye. She collects images and she puts them together and somehow you’ll improvise and she’ll see something that's intriguing, or emotionally confusing as well, or maybe a character that is in a specific world, with a specific way of moving. And she’ll remember it. 

Sound has also been really important too. Maybe Mieko Suzuki is performing live. She is also always on site and she's rehearsing with us throughout the whole process and she's improvising as well, but through music. I would say she is very much with us.

So you are on land and in the water. How has it been working on the island and in the lake?
It’s good that we’ve been working now,  I don't think we would be able to rehearse this in say, May or April because it would be too cold. Sometimes we are already suffering from the cold. We are really shaking.

Because of the length of time that you’re in the water?
Yes, we wear wetsuits all the time, but temperature changes form day to day. So it's quite tiring. So that's a very concrete challenge - being in the water. You're cold. It can also sometimes feels quite lonely in the water.

Because you can't get to each other so quickly?
There are a lot of barriers in place, like wearing wetsuits, which creates a very different body sensation.

But when it's hot and actually easier to work in the water, of course it can become very busy on the island -which can be just as challenging. Sometimes we actually prefer to rehearse in bad weather because at least then it's kind of peaceful on another level. When it's crowded and busy and then you hear Meg trying to give instructions from from a boat while you can also hear everybody else on the island, So it can become difficult trying to focus on too many things at once. Some people have been curious about what we're doing and others not at all, they’re doing their own stuff and we’re just sharing the space while we're working.

One couple came and sat in the centre of what is our stage because they wanted to watch the sunset and they just like sat there and tried as hard as they could to ignore all of the things that were happening around them and the fact that they're in the middle of it, which is just the reality of working site specific.

The audience sits in rows on floating pontoons (Waterproof clothing and non-slip shoes are recommended..) Can you imagine what kind of an experience this will be for those watching?
It's going to be quite a real situation for an audience to be on the water for an hour and a half, also to be a confronted with the conditions that the performers are in. It's like sharing this reality, you're not necessarily in this in a safe space.

It’s going to be quite a trip where they will see the performers constantly re-exposed in different forms, meeting all of the performers again and again in different ways constantly passing through new versions of themselves.  Meg is trying to reveal human beings in a way through these building of like mythological characters, a group creating a group trying to reveal the humanness and the emotional part of the humans. And of course, the water is a big part of it, And I feel that's very much happening actually through these characters we create. We reveal a lot of ourselves, really.

Waterworks:  18.–21. & 23.–26.8

Choreography Meg Stuart. From and with; Kristof Van Boven, Isabela Fernandez, Lucia Gugerli, Pierre Piton, Maria Scaroni, Declan Whitaker, Mirjam Jamuna Zweifel. Dramaturgy: Bart Van den Eynde. Live music: Mieko Suzuki. Scenography & lighting design: Philippe Quesne, Elodie Dauguet. Costume design: Jean Paul Lespagnard. Assistant choreographer: Ana Rocha, Davis Freeman. Project management: "Water- works" Kathrin Veser. Production assistance: Kizzy Garcia Vale Support costume design Selina Tholl, Klaire-Alice Cretoll, Lee Fischer Internship Sofía Werder Production management & artistic assistance The Field Marisa Godoy, Romain Guion Technical assistance David Baumgartner Photo Christian Altorfer 

*The Saffa Island was created from excavated material in 1958 as part of the second Swiss Exhibition of Women's Work (SAFFA). which took place from July to September 1958 on the Landiwiese in Wollishofen. Like the first SAFFA, which was held in Berne in 1928, the second SAFFA aimed to highlight the economic and social importance of women's participation in working life.

Theater Spekatel – other highlights include:

• Gisèle Vienne – The Pond / Der Teich
• Luanda Casella – Ferox Tempus
• Back to Back Theatre – The Shadow Whose Prey the Hunter Becomes
• Wichaya Artamat – This Song Father Used to Sing (Three Days in May)
• Mariano Pensotti & Grupo Marea – Los Años

See the full programme