EXTINCTION In Extinction, French director Julien Gosselin views the burgeoning artistic and intellectual life of early 20th century Vienna as a proverbial “joyous apocalypse” in the atmosphere of the imminent collapse of the monarchy and the onset of World War I. The production, based on Arthur Schnitzler’s plays and novels and Bernhard’s novel Extinction, contrasts the nobility of the Viennese elites striving for beauty and ideals with the relentless brutality of desire and death. This large-scale, gripping project, in which German and French actors joined forces and which enjoyed extraordinary success at a number of festivals including Vienna and Avignon, combines a dance concert, a subdued monologue and a lavish live cinema.
Before Gosselin dives into the dark waters of a humanity left to its fate, a society of literati that spawns a monstrous hydra of evil and nothingness, he invites the audience to cross the fourth wall, join the cast, drink beer, raise a toast to a world going to hell, and dance on its roof until they surrender to the techno sounds of an ecstatic yet haunting DJ set. The numbness is complete. The apocalypse lurks, ready to destroy everything in our civilizations and democracies. The tired, tear-streaked face of German actress Rosa Lembeck in a close-up on the screen above the stage is proof enough of this. Her whole body announces the drama to come. The rave party is coming to an end and it won’t be long before the evil that consumes her, as it consumes her colleagues at this mortifying ball, reveals its roots.
- Olivier Frégaville-Gratian D’Amore, L’Œil d’Olivier
An extravagant party involving incest, rape, sexual perversions, prostitution, drugs and suicide, revolving around three elegant, glamorous Viennese women (Aurélie, Else and Albertine), is a means for Gosselin to connect the past with the omnipresent failure of humanity today. The pinnacle of art and knowledge of the time was born in this refined and brutal Vienna, where anti-Semitism and Nazism were already rampant, even among those who had a sense of the visionary genius of the painter Mondrian or the musician Schoenberg. The party ends with a massacre worthy of a gore film. Gosselin rains fire and blood on his audience, traumatising and inciting them. Some can’t resist.
- Fabienne Pascaud, Télérama
Julien Gosselin (1987) Graduated from the EPSAD theatre school in Lille under the guidance of Stuart Seide. In 2009, he founded the company Si vous pouviez lécher mon cœur with six actors from his graduating class, and in 2010 he staged a production of Fausto Paravidino’s Genoa 01 at the Théâtre du Nord. The following year, he directed Anja Hilling’s play Black Beast Sorrow at the Théâtre de Vanves. In July 2013, he staged his adaptation of Michel Houellebecq’s novel Atomised at the Avignon Festival; it subsequently toured for two years (Paris, Brussels, Berlin, Antwerp, Amsterdam, Jerusalem, Montreal, etc.). He also collaborated with the Théâtre National de Bruxelles and the Théâtre National de Toulouse. In 2016, he premiered a production based on Roberto Bolaño’s novel 2666 at the Avignon Festival, and in 2018 he presented there an adaptation of three Don DeLillo novels, Players, Mao II and The Names. At the invitation of the Internationaal Theater Amsterdam, he has continued to dedicate himself to Don DeLillo and in 2019 he staged an adaptation of Falling Man. As part of the Printemps dec Comédiens festival in Montpellier, he staged an adaptation of the essay Hammer and Sickle, again by Don DeLillo, in 2019. With the students of Strasbourg’s TNS, he staged an adaptation of Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Dekalog in 2021 – and in the same year he premiered The Past, an adaptation of works by Leonid Andreyev. In 2022, in collaboration with Berlin’s Volksbühne, he prepared a production entitled Sturm und Drang: The History of German Literature I. In 2023, Extinction followed, featuring actors from the Volksbühne and the ensemble Si vous pouviez lécher mon cœur. Julien Gosselin is an associate artist at the Phénix (Scène Nationale de Valenciennes), the Théâtre Nanterre-Amandiers and the Volksbühne.
Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz is a theatre in Berlin, created in 1890 during a founding meeting of the Freie Volksbühne association. The theatre is located on Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz in the district of Mitte. It was built in 1913–1914 from members’ donations and existed until 17 May 1933 under the name Volksbühne Theater am Bülowplatz. The building was severely damaged after the war and was not reopened until 1954. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Frank Castorf took over as artistic director, and his term ended in 2017. His successor Chris Dercon resigned in April 2018, after which the theatre was temporarily managed by Klaus Dörr. From 2018 to 2021, it was officially called the Volksbühne Berlin. Since René Pollesch took over as artistic director from the 2021/22 season, it has been known by its previous name again. The original auditorium had three tiers with 1968 seats. In the 1960s, their number was reduced to the current 800 seats.
