Michael Heltau

How has it been as a child?
You've lived a life before
Alas, you were deaf and blind
And had sticky wings
Oh God, how shall there ever be
Paradise birds? And then a curtain rises
And all at once a new world opens


I fulfil a desire. My first theatrical impression to inflame my phantasy was a vaudeville evening with magicians, musical clowns, operetta singers, trained pigeons and dogs. The environment of this event couldn't have been poorer - and more phantastic. The public was an adventurous result of an adventurous historical situation: soldiers, English and Russian prisoners of war, and locals, which meant ten notables and the peasants from around. I was seven years old and had been given my parents' permission to accompany them. This must have been my first great love. I've never lost my feelings for this minimalistic form of theatre, and I'm happy to discover it from time to time in the great world of theatre. Shakespeare, Schubert, Mozart, Picasso - and Eleonora Duse: the greatest draw all their knowledge from the most humble. I fulfil a child's dream.