Theater Gardi Hutter's metamorphosis from "Hanna" to "Gardi Zero"
After more than 4000 performances in 35 countries as "Hanna", Gardi Hutter is starting a new chapter in the fall. In an interview with the Keystone-SDA news agency, the clown talks about her new play and the moments when she comes up with the best ideas.
13.01.2025, 11:29
SDA
Thick clouds of fog hang over Mendrisiotto on this cold January day. Gardi Hutter's house is tucked away in the old village center of Arzo. Bright blue shutters and a trompe-l'œil with a cat on the wall point the way to the artist, who has lived and worked in the small village, which belongs to Mendrisio, for 40 years.
For her new piece, which the clown will open at Theaterhaus Stuttgart at the end of October, she will leave "the concrete world", says Hutter. There will be no stage set, no material, no text. That's why the program is called "Gardi Zero".
Only one suitcase on stage
Only a suitcase will be seen on stage. "Gardi Zero" revolves around the question of how something is born out of nothing. "I want to give more space to the spherical", says Gardi Hutter, without being more specific. Her character resembles a "root fairy".
Her new play is about how a whole world emerges from small things and then disintegrates again, says Hutter. She also deals intensively with questions about material possessions in her private life. "I'm trying to get by with fewer and fewer things." She has always been very concerned with the social level behind a play. Now she wants to return to the "essence" in her new program.
Hutter has already tested "Gardi Zero" in public rehearsals in Berlin. The subject matter touched and engaged people, she says. The fact that this communication with the audience works so well fascinates her more and more: "When you manage to get the audience into a state between laughter and tears, it's magical."
"A shared intoxication"
Hutter compares playing theater to a ritual that resembles a mass in church. "Theater is about a collective experience of images and myths." When the audience is moved by the images sketched on stage and laughs, an "enormous sense of relaxation" develops, says the 71-year-old. This then returns to her. "It has something of a shared intoxication."
Will we see a more thoughtful Gardi Hutter in the new play? "I've always thought a lot," the Ticino native replies promptly. She has written folders full of texts for all her plays in order to clarify for herself what is behind a character. From the fall, however, there will definitely be less acrobatics on show.
More intuitive and light-footed
Despite the philosophical questions, her new program will be lighter rather than heavier, explains the artist. "I want to rid my new figure of calories!" The root fairy should be less "grounded" than Hanna, who has to deal with very concrete everyday problems such as pins and mountains of laundry.
In "Gardi Zero" she will work more intuitively, everything should be "more light-footed". Nevertheless, she does not want to create "high culture", but wants to remain close to the people in the audience. She has always written her plays for the cleaner and the professor, says the clown, outlining her vision.
Every morning after waking up, she sits in bed for an hour and drinks green tea. She tries "not to think in a focused way", but to simply let her thoughts flow. That's how she works. The best ideas come to her in these moments.
So far, her plays have started with "a major catastrophe, a major conflict and an unsolvable problem", Hutter sums up. After all, failure in particular is a source of laughter. A harmonious world does not need comedy. "But this time it will be different."
