Wings of Desire Program - American Repertory Theater

“Away with the world behind the world!”by Dirkje HoutmanAngels play a crucial role in Ola Mafaalani’s theatre. They wander the stage in the periphery ofthe action, while love is often defeated by violence and human helplessness. The angels areobservers, 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 exitingthe stage. They stay in view, hanging out at a bar or, as in her Romeo and Juliet (ToneelgroepAmsterdam, 2004), finding a new place behind a white paper wall that was slowly besmeared withblack paint, and becoming visible when a raging Romeo tore down the paper. There, at the back ofthe stage, the dead can “live on,” observing us, the living, but no longer accompanying us. With bruteforce they are thrown out of time, and now they populate the world behind the world. In the contextof our tormented existence, this eternity takes on an almost positive turn. But the worlds of the deadand 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 timeangels are performing the lead roles, and the two distinct worlds find each other. In this new theatricalorder, events, memories, dreams, and personal histories are cherished and function as the pillarsof stories that we’re losing in these hectic times of hype and confusion. The angels Damiel andCassiel are immortal and have existed from the beginning of time. They observe, imitate, and consolepeople; they have a sharp eye for details and record major historical events, from the origins ofman till the most recent wars. They know history and its stories great and small, as does Homer, theimmortal 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 onhis shoulders that will make him “earthbound,” as he puts it. He longs to gain a history, to conquera story of his own. To stand in time. To live now. The instant he falls in love, this desire growsstronger. The girl, Marion, is a trapeze artist, who challenges gravity with her aerobatics, even at therisk of breaking her neck. For her, but also for the ultimate sensation of life, Damiel will exchangeeternity for mortality.In this fusion between anangel and a human being, anew story will be born, perhapsthe start of a brand new historythat encloses a seed of hope.In the worlds of Marion in herfinal declaration of love toDamiel: “There is no greaterstory than ours, of man andwoman. It will be a story ofgiants, invisible, infectious, astory of new ancestors.”Dirkje Houtman is thedramaturg at ToneelgroepAmsterdam.The Victory Column topped by the statue of the Angelat the Grosser Stern.