Wings of Desire Program - American Repertory Theater

“Away with the world behind the world!”
by Dirkje Houtman
Angels play a crucial role in Ola Mafaalani’s theatre. They wander the stage in the periphery of
the action, while love is often defeated by violence and human helplessness. The angels are
observers, demonstrating compassion and sometimes imitating the violent habits of human beings.
The number of lives lost in Mafaalani’s productions is high, but the dead never disappear by exiting
the stage. They stay in view, hanging out at a bar or, as in her Romeo and Juliet (Toneelgroep
Amsterdam, 2004), finding a new place behind a white paper wall that was slowly besmeared with
black paint, and becoming visible when a raging Romeo tore down the paper. There, at the back of
the stage, the dead can “live on,” observing us, the living, but no longer accompanying us. With brute
force they are thrown out of time, and now they populate the world behind the world. In the context
of our tormented existence, this eternity takes on an almost positive turn. But the worlds of the dead
and the living stay separate; two different stories, told apart from each other.
In Wings of Desire we see the start of a new movement in Mafaalani’s work. For the first time
angels are performing the lead roles, and the two distinct worlds find each other. In this new theatrical
order, events, memories, dreams, and personal histories are cherished and function as the pillars
of stories that we’re losing in these hectic times of hype and confusion. The angels Damiel and
Cassiel are immortal and have existed from the beginning of time. They observe, imitate, and console
people; they have a sharp eye for details and record major historical events, from the origins of
man till the most recent wars. They know history and its stories great and small, as does Homer, the
immortal poet who wanders the stage and teaches the audiences that people need stories to survive.
But Damiel doesn’t want to observe any longer; he yearns to experience reality, to feel a weight on
his shoulders that will make him “earthbound,” as he puts it. He longs to gain a history, to conquer
a story of his own. To stand in time. To live now. The instant he falls in love, this desire grows
stronger. The girl, Marion, is a trapeze artist, who challenges gravity with her aerobatics, even at the
risk of breaking her neck. For her, but also for the ultimate sensation of life, Damiel will exchange
eternity for mortality.
In this fusion between an
angel and a human being, a
new story will be born, perhaps
the start of a brand new history
that encloses a seed of hope.
In the worlds of Marion in her
final declaration of love to
Damiel: “There is no greater
story than ours, of man and
woman. It will be a story of
giants, invisible, infectious, a
story of new ancestors.”
Dirkje Houtman is the
dramaturg at Toneelgroep
Amsterdam.
The Victory Column topped by the statue of the Angel
at the Grosser Stern.