Wandervogel

Heinz Rutha. Have you ever heard the name before? No? Don’t worry, in 100 years’ time, nobody will remember you either… Fortunately, the Wandervogel squad is coming to town! Four charming lads with their elderly leader, trained hard to bring the forgotten past alive. To share a story about love, friendship and fascism.

It’s 1918. The Habsburg Empire has broken to pieces, and the Sudeten Germans find themselves in a lamentable situation. The land they had lived on for centuries is now called Czechoslovakia. Who is going to save the sacred homeland? Heinz Rutha, a charismatic man with a romantic streak, has a plan: to train the most attractive and athletic boys, who will become the elite of the future Sudeten German state. The well-intended mission, fuelled by suppressed same-sex desires, will bring forth the biggest homosexual scandal of interwar Czechoslovakia.

The life and the era of the Sudeten German nationalist Heinz Rutha is the starting point for the witty, scenic composition Wandervogel. Authentic police protocols, an intimate war diary, and historical political speeches mix with the present-day experience of the performers, building up an unexpected link between Rutha’s struggle and the current political turmoil. Through powerful visual imagery, anchored in the uncompromising physical presence of the cast, the audience is invited to explore contemporary meanings behind the concepts devised by Rutha in his vision of the ideal community. What do the terms sexuality, nation, fascism, nature, and beauty mean today?

The performance is inspired by Mark Cornwall’s book The Devil’s Wall.

“Sexuality, the body, the state, nationalism, youth… Is it even possible to fit all of this into one night and not end up with cheesiness? Director Jan Mocek proves that it is. Balancing on the edge of drama and physical theatre, he serves the audience a substantial piece, novel in format, in which the fate of the Sudeten German politician and youth leader Heinz Rutha comes to life, and with him a multitude of uneasy topics.”
Lucie Kocourková (Theatre Journal)

The performance contains scenes with explicit nudity.

About the company

Jan Mocek is a theatre maker based in Prague. In his work, he mixes elements of pop culture, politics, and personal experience to speak about the times we are living in. In other words, he sees the gold where everyone else smells shit. His main concern within his theatre work is to open up difficult themes with all their ambiguities, while offering pure, distilled doses of beauty.

Mocek’s work has been presented at national and international festivals and venues, among them Komuna Warszawa, Toplocentrala, Fast Forward Dresden, Rehearsal for Truth NYC, Submerge Digital Arts Festival Bristol, and 4+4 Days in Motion Prague. Jan Mocek is a member of IN-SITU – the European platform for artistic creation in public space.

SixHouses is a production platform directed by Tana Svehlova which provides complex production support for Jan Mocek’s projects.