Quantum Theatre wants to put audiences up to ‘The Task’

“The Task” by Heiner Müller

Quantum Theatre

April… “The Task” by Heiner Müller

Quantum Theatre

April 22–May 9

The Gage Building, 30th and Liberty, the Strip District

$28-$40, $16 for students

www.quantumtheatre.com

From the outside of the Strip District’s Gage Building, a nondescript gray-brown building, there’s no indication that a theatrical work of art is set to take place within its walls.

Inside this building the peeled moss-green and beige paint, creaking floorboards and ancient radiators don’t appear to be what German playwright Heiner Müller had in mind as the stage for his play “The Task.”

But when Karla Boos saw the space, she saw infinite potential. She saw the perfect space to host “the theater of the revolution.”

“The building felt like an East German factory of the mid-20th century,” she said of the post-industrial space.

As artistic director of company Quantum Theatre, Boos had been all around Pittsburgh looking for the perfect stage. “I felt this was the best space to communicate the journey of the piece,” she said.

This journey that “The Task” takes the audience on occurs in six different locations all set on the second floor of the Gage Building. The first scene is set in the loading dock, and as the play progresses, the audience moves along with the action through the entire floor until the play’s end.

Jed Allen Harris, a CMU theater professor and director of “The Task,” calls this walking journey “the experience.”

And just as it will be an experience to all who attend “The Task’s” showings, it was an experience to produce such a complicated work of art.

Upon receiving the “difficult and dense” script from Boos, Harris admitted he had no idea what he’d do with the play. He took that as a sign to accept the challenge, which made the experience all the more exciting.

“What seemed difficult on the pages [of the script] became easier as time went on,” Harris explained. According to Harris, as the onstage and offstage teams developed, “things became infinitely meaningful.”

What was most meaningful to Harris was conveying the theme of exploration in the piece. Harris wanted the audience to explore the scenes just as the characters do. In that purpose, one single stage became six stages. He felt this was the only way the audience would truly grasp “the experience.”

When asked to put the experience into words, Harris said he couldn’t. “The experience can only be had through the theatrical event,” he said.

Boos explained that the play’s scenes begin with “giant expanses” and ultimately end with the audience inside the heads of the characters.

For example, one of the beginning scenes takes place with the audience looking through a metal gate at the characters. The audience then moves to either side of a freight elevator to witness a scene taking place inside. But the last two scenes are in a more intimate space, where the actors are an arm’s length away.

Boos assures that in the final scene, “the experience will be complete.”

“It’s a surrounding, encompassing experience that I hope will be unforgettable,” Boos said.

Quantum Theatre’s “The Task” has been in the making for about six months now, not long compared to the number of years Boos and Harris have been colleagues. But this is the first time in 30 years of friendship that the two have worked side by side.

They were on a committee at Carnegie Mellon together when Boos realized the chance to collaborate had finally presented itself. “[Harris and I] are from the same era. We’ve had the same influences and it just made sense,” Boos said.

Instead of focusing on all the years they could have worked together, the two decided to seize the opportunity for a future joint effort.

Boos and Harris then joined with designers both nationally and internationally known and completed their team with a professional cast.

Thus, “The Task” is a presentation from artists firmly invested in their craft and interests. “Together we addressed a blank canvas to make a meaningful theater experience,” Harris said.

“It’s a play about betrayal of ideals and the need for the Third World to become agents of change,” Harris explained. “Heiner Müller was a director that created theater that engaged intellect and spirit.”

To Harris’s knowledge, Müller’s works haven’t been performed in Pittsburgh before. Regardless of whether that’s accurate or not, Müller’s plays haven’t been done like this before.