When faced with death, Gustav Mahler wrote Der Abscheid, one of his most moving works. Grace Ellen Barkey and Lot Lemm of Needcompany take up this theme in FOREVER, which premiered during Steirischer Herbst. They have replaced the instruments by tinkling porcelain and dazzling bodies with beating hearts.

Das Lied von der Erde is the title of Mahler’s symphony of songs whose finale is Der Abscheid. Is the singer someone who is unable to leave the world and life behind? Or someone for whom eternity is coming achingly close? This question was also what motivated Grace Ellen Barkey and Lot Lemm of the Belgian Needcompany.

In FOREVER, the Mahler connection is barely distinguishable – though in essence he is present everywhere and at all times. The singer Maarten Seghers plays with the vocal material brilliantly; with no musical accompaniment it sounds abstract and even absurd. But it is precisely because of this that the individual’s forlornness in the face of death becomes even clearer.

Porcelain leaves, hung all around the stage like a sculptural wooded landscape, act as a captivating accompaniment. When they are set in motion by fans they start to tinkle. The gentleness and fragility of life resounds in every breath of wind and slowly ascends until everything crashes down like frozen foliage in an autumn storm.

The nimble dancers – sometimes as chirruping birds, or as enticing nymphs – act as a swirling counterpoint in the eternal cycle of nature. Yet in one way or another, in spite of their impressive skill and with a flawlessness enveloped in ludicrously hyper-feminine underwear, they become an unnecessary ballast in this performance. Or is it that this is precisely where the true beauty of life lies, in that one acknowledges the superior beauty of death – and in spite of this is able to keep on living?