WITTGENSTEIN 2
Vienna, 1923. Smooth rhetoric, the lingo of propaganda, slips through the filters of critical correction. Bold words are used to fuel the growing envy everywhere. Words are not innocent. They can incite exclusion, blindness, and terror. Language can destroy.
In 1923, the Vienna Circle convenes. Against the backdrop of anti-democratic disruption and demagogic threats—that same year, the Nazis made their first attempt at power—this group of thinkers attempts to reduce language to its essence, ridding it of ambiguity, false logic, and demagogic abuse. Language must be clear, reasonable, and as scientific as possible. If language is clear, thought will also flow clearly, they believe. Something the era needed.
In 1923, the Vienna Circle convenes. Against the backdrop of anti-democratic disruption and demagogic threats—that same year, the Nazis made their first attempt at power—this group of thinkers attempts to reduce language to its essence, ridding it of ambiguity, false logic, and demagogic abuse. Language must be clear, reasonable, and as scientific as possible. If language is clear, thought will also flow clearly, they believe. Something the era needed.
They are so absorbed in their ideas that they become detached from reality. Their idealism blinds them to the dangers of their time. Ultimately, they too are left empty-handed by the overwhelming way populism uses language as a weapon to win over the masses. While they want to save language and its true connection to the world, they fail to see how Nazism is destroying democracy to the core. It's not the language. Language is logical. Language is clear. It can't be the language.
In 2020, theatre artist Bo Tarenskeen came up with the crazy yet surprisingly manageable idea of creating a theatre series in eleven parts about the logician Ludwig Wittgenstein and his influence on the world. The first part premiered in 2021. After a sold-out tour, it had an equally sold-out reprise in 2023.
Wittgenstein 1 contextualized Wittgenstein's thinking with a sketch of his life, his passionate search for clarity, both logical and ethical. Wittgenstein 2 ventures a dangerous analogy with our time. A wryly comic performance with four actors, about how thinking, in its quest for clarity and truth, becomes detached from reality.
Wittgenstein 2 was officially selected for the Dutch Theatre Festival in 2024. Bo Tarenskeen was nominated for a Louis d’Or in the category Most
Premièred on 26th October 2023 at Frascati Theater in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
DIRECTION AND TEXT Bo Tarenskeen
CO-DIRECTION AND LIGHTING DESIGN Erasmus Mackenna
PERFORMANCE Amarenske Haitsma, Bo Tarenskeen, Lowie van Oers and Jurjen Zeelen
DRAMATURGY Jellichje Reijnders
PRODUCED BY Stichting De Tienduizend Dingen