RUHE, performed at the Barn Theatre, Rose Bruford, London
RUHE was Stefanie's debut as a director.
"I write without seeing. I came. I wanted to kiss your hand. . . . This is the first time I have ever written in the dark . .. not knowing whether I am indeed forming letters. Wherever there will be nothing, read that I love you" (Derrida, 1993)
Stefanie was fascinated by the idea that we all imagine and therefore interprete the world differently. That someone might see nothing and another person might see a lot in a certain moment. Therefore she started to explore how we can communicate these mental images without using verbal language to bridge the gap between sender and receiver. The experiment or the impossible idea was to reverse the sense of seeing. Instead of seeing an image, reflecting it up-side-down on the retina and then sending it to the brain to make sense of it, the process is initiated in the brain, the mental image is created and then reflected outward through the eyes. In the end this reflection - this energy is what makes relationships so special and why people around us can have such a powerful influence over us without using words.
The narrative started to appear throughout the process, as some scenarios and themes kept re-appearing. As for example many times when the performers were asked to look into each other's eyes, they both created stories in their minds in which they were brother and sister. This therefore became the first point of reference from which the story started to unfold. Even though there was a strong narrative present for the performers at the end, it was very important for Stefanie that nothing was descriptive, but rather allowed for enough space for the audience to reconnect with their own imagination and their own memories. Giving space for them to feel rather than to think.
"Something always remains present, but out of view." (Zarrilli, 2009)
