PRESS COVERAGE (2019-2020)
THE SADDEST MAN IN THE WORLD
Kritikaz.com, 08.04.2020
by Olga Vujovic
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"Absolutely Reliable!" with Ralf Wetzel, International Clown Festival Zagreb, 12.03.2020
…Ralf Wetzel, performed "Absolutely Reliable", directed by Lee Delong at the Triko Circus Studio….His Zagreb performance, described as a "solo mask show", is one of the most exciting performances I've seen in our theaters lately!
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He is George, a middle-aged man, middle-class man, and a mediocre manager by profession, who recounts his life to us in search of love, friendship and affirmation.
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... a poignant story, masked to unrecognizability and unusual voice modulations, Wetzel evokes deep and sincere sympathy. Thanks to his remarkable interpretation, we do not see Wetzel but George.
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George is the prototype of a modern man….an example of a man who may have conquered the universe but lost the battle against himself.
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And we cannot laugh at such a character, even when he is funny.
THE WEIRDEST WAY TO TEACH BUSINESS
Financial Times, 14.08.2019
by Jonathan Moules
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[The] masked character, George, is a version of a prototypical western man based on ... the traumas that alpha males face in a business world now shaped by the need to diversify workforces and for managers to be more empathetic.
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The character of George, a white, middle-aged, middle-class, middle manager [is] desperate for both promotion in his company and for a relationship in his personal life.
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As he gets closer to achieving these goals, George’s inner demons of insecurity, anger and denial get the better of him, to tragic effect.
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DARING WORK!
FringeReview 25.08.2019
by Sam Chittenden
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Venue: C Cubed
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
From the offset Wetzel’s character Goerge is a strange mix of funny and unsettling.
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George is a storyteller, recounting the surprising (to him) story of his romantic liaison with the sensual Josephine. Wetzel sveltely shifts in and out of Josephine’s physique….
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As the tale develops it (and George) becomes more sinister; more surreal….Wetzel’s emotional engagement with his audience is palpable, and we can’t help but empathise. Yet at the same time there is something ominous about his impulsive neediness; something hilariously discomforting about his sensuality on stage, the way he mounts and strokes a chair….
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Of course, things don’t end well, and there is a dark and nicely elliptical ending in sight.
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One of very few pieces of mask work in this year’s fringe, Absolutely Reliable! is a deliciously dark tale, engagingly delivered.
ABSOLUTELY RELIABLE!
Mumble Theatre, 14.08.2019
Stagecraft: 4 stars
Performance: 5 stars
S.O.D: 4 stars
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Damian Beeson Bullen
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Mumble Theatre
Overall, the message of the play is driven by the context in which you watch it. If you put the show into a different perspective, you see something different. We discovered that it’s like a prism. It will break light accordingly to how it is projected onto it. Masculinity is one angle, femininity might be another.
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The beautiful & deformed gargoyle that is George comes across sometimes creepy – like serial killer weird – & sometimes catching our sympathies with sweetness.
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… with Wetzel fluctuating between polarized emotions in an astonishing instant – like a magician’s flip of a card – in the same effortless fashion that his 18th century compatriot, Konrad Ekhof, handled both tragedy & comedy famously well.
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He is a superb performer & it is a most addictive & fascinating experience watching him surfing on his own intensity.
