Even without a word being spoken on stage, German theatre troupe Familie Floz presented pandemonium within a family with such hilarity in the play Hotel Paradiso, that it struck a chord with the audience. By Saritha Saraswathy Balan
It feels like a children’s playhouse, replete with vibrant movements by masked players that camouflage a murder mystery in the end. No dialogue is uttered as the human players move around the stage, their faces hidden behind masks that despite their frozen nature, display every shade of human emotion, from love to desire, rage and horror. The faces come alive with a tilt of the head or a bend of hand. Hotel Paradiso, a play that combines the comedy of Fawlty Towers with the eeriness of Psycho’sBates Motel, was presented by the German theatre troupe Familie Floz and had the audience in thrall from the beginning with an element of surprise.
All the 20 characters that feature in the play wear masks. Using a mask enables an actor to take on a role ranging from a toddler to a 90-year old. It’s only at the end of the play, when the cast is introduced, that the audience realises that there were only four actors who had donned multiple roles.
Hotel Paradiso, a small hotel situated in the snow-covered slopes of the Swiss Alps, is where the story unfolds. It seems beautiful from the outside. But go inside, even the elevator does not work. Nobody knows what the chef, who is never seen without his coat, is cooking. All the actors appear busy, yet not a word is spoken onstage. This does not prevent the audience from being spellbound right till the end of the play.
look closer, right behind the concierge’s desk, where the main character played by Nicolaj Witte sits, a fight is on among the family members over property. Witte could play only the title role, as he is present all through the play, whereas the other three actors — Daniel Mathews, Melanie Schmidli and Matteo Fantoni — keep switching between the other 19 characters, with the help of masks. Pandemonium reigns supreme with surprising hilarity right from the word ‘go’, with a murder taking place, and the eagerness to cover up the same. Action ensues in the hotel, when the body is found. The place soon transforms from paradise to hell. The entry of a robber in the hotel with cops in hot pursuit could have made it slightly tense but the consummate skill of the actors helps keep the comic tempo right till the end. Despite the macabre turn of events.
The audience was left with lingering images from the act, long after the play was over. The set, impeccable timing and fluid movements, all were in perfect sync. The troupe has already toured 34 countries and the play, first staged in 2006, has been presented a whopping 700 times. Gianni Bettuci, the play’s producer and one of its three directors, talks about how the play was “born.” The troupe, which is concurrently enacting two other plays as well, began to work on this project without any script in hand. “The rehearsal took time for there was no script. But in the end, it turned out well. Ours is probably the only company in the world that ‘plays’ with masks. With these on, you can articulate emotions which your face is unable to express. There is something very personal about donning a mask, which we prefer to call magic,” he smiles.
little modifications are incorporated into the script to suit the cultural differences of each country. In Iran, the actors wearing male and female masks could not touch on stage. “We have to adopt a cultural approach, so as not to hurt the emotions of the audience,” he says. They have combined mime, clowning and theatre to create a new theatrical language and set it against an emotional soundtrack and dramatic sets. Every time the play is presented, they make a little change in the set and script —which Bettuci avers — appears as a big change in totality. The actors switch roles within seconds, paying homage to their artistic expertise.