Dream and Derangement

“Death and derangement” is an autobiographical prose poem written by gifted poet Georg Trakl months before his premature death. The director and his performer trace the profound sadness of the poem, which seems to reflect the life of Trakl himself, blessed with outstanding literary talent but tormented by frustration and guilt, and chart the shadow of death in the poem, its tone and timbre.

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French theatre legend Claude Régy chose “Death and Derangement” for his last directorial work, staged at SPAC’s Ellipse Theatre DAENDO. The performance’s unparalleled world of darkness and silence took audiences to the limit of their emotions. Four years have passed since this legendary production, and three since the death of Régy. Satoshi Miyagi and Micari, whose collaboration spans more than 30 years, present a quiet homage to the late Régy, ringing out Trakl’s and all mankind’s desire for salvation in the pitch-black theatre space.

The world is awash in words, but among them very few relate to life and death.
The moment a writer creates words that can be called “absolute poetry,” words that for the writer are inescapable, the writer's body is, figuratively speaking, severely wounded in the writing of them. Of course, those “wounds” are not only those that lead to death, but also those that lead to the “joy” to be found beyond earthly life.
The performer shows these words related to “profound life and death,” together with the “wounds” of the poet's body in the instance the words were written. In other words, the actor does away with all his/her armor and lives the body of the poet the moment the words were created – I think this is what Régy wanted from his actor. “Absolute poetry” takes a person who has truly confronted its words to the “shores of life.” Beyond those shores is death, or the other side. Either way, it is not something to be frightened of. Because by looking at it, people can finally understand “life.”
From theatre magazine Higeki Kigeki March 2020 issue “In remembrance of Claude Régy,” “Claude Régy: guide to the other shore” by Satoshi Miyagi.



Georg Trakl （1887-1914）
Poet, born in 1887 in Salzburg, Austria. Devoted to literature from an early age, his poetry regularly appeared in magazines after his military service ended in 1912, and his poetry collection “Gedichte” was published in 1913. He went to the front as a medic when World War 1 began but attempted suicide with a pistol and was deported to a psychiatric hospital in Krakow. Suffering from depression, he died of a drug overdose at the young age of 27. Despite being active as a poet for only a short time, he was supported and encouraged by his contemporaries, including the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, and is known as a leading Expressionist poet.