Herbert Rettich: A Night with the Crocodiles
Theatre sculptor Herbert Rettich remembers his collaboration with set and costume designer Rolf Borzik
Herbert Rettich making a crocodile for the piece "Keuschheitslegende (Legend of Chastity)"
"Normally it’s not that interesting how we make something work, but he found it fascinating."
Herbert Rettich about Rolf Borzik
The best bit was after the crocodiles had been in the store and we brought them out into the park and gave everyone a fright.
I thought it was great that a set designer turned up weekend after weekend, and evenings too. Whenever he could, he helped out, and he was incredibly interested in technical details, how you might do something differently. I was busy inventing things and we spurred each other on.
He painted the first crocodile for Keuschheitslegende (Legend of Chastity) himself. He wasn’t going to miss out on the chance to try out how it would work with the splodges of paint.
I remember one night here with the crocodiles: we wanted to get the second one finished before the premiere and we stayed up working till two in the morning, or maybe four or five, till we couldn’t carry on. Then we went home for a bit, crashed out, and got back to work again at ten.
When you’re tired, you sometimes get these blocks, and then it really helps if you get on with each other – if you’re having fun, even if you’re still there at ten at night, and still having a laugh. You don’t always want to accept that another detail now needs changing when you’re already running behind, but in the end you realise it’s worth it.
Rolf was always excellent at technical solutions. For instance, how you get a crocodile to open its mouth and wag its tail and turn its head. There’s a kind of rod inside which you operate with your backside, with an angled lever. When you raise your bottom, the crocodile opens its mouth and the tail lifts – the same thing to the left and right.
I have a lot of photos from the development process for the hippo and the crocodiles, where you can see the various stages. Rolf took them, and I think that’s worth noting. Normally it’s not that interesting how we make something work, but he found it fascinating. He documented the development and made huge great prints of them for me, without me asking – really nice things.
From Rolf Borzik and the Tanztheater, published by Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch for the 20th anniversary of Rolf Borzik's death in 2000
