Goebbels' "I went to the house but did not enter" promised to be an engaging concert staged in a three-part literary tableaux, featuring the works of T.S. Eliot, Maurice Blanchot, Kafka and Samuel Beckett.
The staging opened with the performers, members of the male a cappella group The Hilliard Ensemble, disassembling the set of a gray room. The performers packed the room's contents into a large, white box, only to unpack it and reassemble the room moments later.
This action on stage parallels Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufock," with the packing and unpacking apparently a reference to the rise and fall of Prufock's relationships.
In re-enacting "Prufock," The Hilliard Ensemble was able to capture an almost light-hearted tone amidst the gray scenery and depressing, high tenor songs.
Though their movements were effective in communicating Eliot's text, the performer's monotonous singing, while in the tradition of the Ensemble members' classical training, detracted from what was happening on stage.
In the second act, Goebbels staged Blanchot's work, "The Madness of the Day," and hit his stride.
Goebbels' scenery was particularly creative, easing the transition between each separate act.
Goebbels was able to delve into the issue of schizophrenia, which was a focal point of Blanchot's text, using an elaborately constructed house as a prop. Goebbels conveyed the disjointed, unpredictable nature of Blanchot's subject by playing with the way the lighting hit the house.
In preparation for the next tableaux, Goebbels briefly used Kafka's work from an "Excursion into the Mountains" to transition into Beckett's exceedingly postmodern work, "Worstward Ho."
Relying predominantly on their monotone a cappella to communicate the message of the Kafka piece, The Hilliard Ensemble's short foray did not flow smoothly into the next act.
During the transition between every tableaux, Goebbels did not lower the curtain while stage hands changed the set.
At the close of the performers' thankfully brief song on Kafka's work, Goebbels had the foreboding house opened, revealing the interior of what appeared to be a hotel room for a businessman away on a trip, outfitted with a mini-fridge and television set. Unlike the previous scenes in which the rooms seemed to be part of the house, this room was clearly different from the others, lending an element of surprise to the production.
Here, the performance stalled as Beckett's words flashed across an overhead scrolling marquee and The Hilliard Ensemble sang and sang and sang. They sat before a projector and watched snapshots of life flash before their eyes, singing of "failing better" or "nothing else ever."
While Goebbels may have designed the production to be without emotion to serve some metaphoric purpose, the technique was ineffective and left the audience uncertain of the work's meaning.
Goebbels picked his texts well -- Eliot, Blanchot, Kafka and Beckett complemented one another. But the monotony of the singing detracted from Goebbels' overall theme of madness and incomprehensibility.
"I went to the house but did not enter" was too poised and indifferent to capture the unpredictable nature of relationships, madness and the tumultuousness of life.