The lover

Marco Göcke's The Lover is based on the 1984 novel L'Amant by Marguerite Duras. In partly autobiographical fragments, the author tells of the encounter between a fifteen-year-old Frenchwoman and a significantly older Chinese lover in what was then colonial Indo-China (today Vietnam).

While the novel sparked discussions about sexuality, dependency and colonial conditions when it was published, Göcke's choreography deliberately focuses on the interpersonal dimensions of the story. Duras' elliptical, fragmentary narrative style, interspersed with layers of memory, silent observations and nuances, translates Göcke into a choreographic language that does not depict the linear action, but carries out feelings and inner conflicts in precisely set movement impulses: longing, guilt, power, love and desire are condensed into movements that make the body visible as a medium of memory, desire and social constraints.

Musically, compositions by Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, Frédéric Chopin, Unsuk Chin and Gabriel Fauré merge into a soundscape that is just as strongly influenced by memory and imagination as the literary original.

Göcke, one of the most influential choreographers of our time, has established his unmistakable signature with over sixty pieces worldwide. In The Lover, this is shown through shimmering movements, impulsive body reactions and an expressive radicality that makes every detail a statement. His production is not a romantic story, but a radical, poetic meditation on longing for love, dependencies and the struggle for self-determination.

Recommended from 12 years