Was ihr wollt

“Pauwels and her team unleash a storm of images over the next two hours, turning Shakespeare’s play into a loose show in which identities and the old binary ideas are swept up and the joys and agonies of love are illuminated.”

“Love is a painful game, but also a game that pleases when it is as exuberant, airy and cheerful as this production.”

“The Belgian director Lies Pauwels pushes the play apart, even rearranging its course a little. She fills the resulting gaps with a wealth of small and large-scale acting events that she has developed with the ensemble. They all play to cover up their longings, worries and the fragility of their existence, sometimes also to make them appear outward. Shakespeare’s “What You Will” is already a game with masks and identities. With Pauwels, it becomes a tableau of self-assertion; the plot dissolves into it.”

“The Shakespearean content of ”What You Will” is recognizable in all of this, but not at all decisive. The Dutch director Lies Pauwels - for the first time (hopefully not the last time) with a work at the Kammerspiele - manages to follow the content of “What You Will” in her production, but does not present it narratively, instead keeping it in the background and focusing everything more on the characters’ introspection.
It’s a pleasure to experience this “borderline world” between drama and performance based on Shakespeare, with all kinds of mixtures and confusions! It’s an actors’ evening, a really successful evening!”

“The interesting thing is that in this production everything is - it’s hard to believe - negotiated slowly and clearly, not by storm. The emotional states of the participants in “Was ihr wollt” are unfolded almost slowly, they are stretched out to a certain extent by Lies Pauwel’s texts, drawn into the depths.”

“Shakespeare sharpens our gaze. This spectacle is a decidedly palatable guide to the not-so-easy task of figuring things out for ourselves. During the stormy final applause, the director embraces each and every one of us. Rarely happens, but fits perfectly here.”

“The eight-member ensemble inspires with a consistently urgent, dramatic play, from which only Svetlana Belesova’s Fool stands out in rational wisdom.”

“The fact that the production does not become a dry construct despite the confusion of roles and a few wrong turns in the second third is due not only to the ensemble but also to Pauwels’ ability to combine poetic moments - such as Sir Andrew’s dance with Sir Toby - with comedy and music (Jonathan Wimer, Thomas Schlinger) to create something that is nevertheless gentle, even heart-rending, in its gaudy and absurd imagery.