Notstand

Poster and postcard design for the premiere of Wilfried Oschisching's play

computer drawing, 2000

The play Notstand by the Austrian playwright Wilfried Oschisching was premiered with great success under the direction of Eva-Karen Tittmann in Berlin's Theaterdock.

Notstand means state of emergency or dire straits, which describes the condition of two of the three characters. They dream of escape from desperate urban poverty and of swimming free in the ocean. The idea of such a transformation or "sea change" has been a used as a powerful device by poets and dramatists for centuries and was a great favourite of Shakespeare (especially in The Tempest). Oschisching used this device to considerable effect, and Tittmann's direction of a scene in which the two characters enact their fantasy was a powerful and convincing piece of theatre.

The director was very clear that she wanted an image of waves coming to the shore for the poster. It is the strongest memory most of us landlubbers have of the sea. We stand outside looking on, with a mixture of awe, dread and hope. Dare we dip our toes in?

The seascape motif takes us back to my 1993 design for Salonika.