Zachary Oberzan

THE GREAT PRETENDER

brut
Performance / Theatre Austrian premiere in English
{love me tender} {close-up – mash-up} {who is who?}
, © Manu Bloemen

Zachary Oberzan - THE GREAT PRETENDER

, © Nicole Schuchardt

Zachary Oberzan - THE GREAT PRETENDER

, © Manu Bloemen

Zachary Oberzan - THE GREAT PRETENDER

In his new, acclaimed performance, all-rounder and gifted Elvis impersonator Zacharzy Oberzan combines elements of film, theatre and music into a schmaltzily tragicomic evening circling around the issue of identity and the roles we all play every day. As THE GREAT PRETENDER, Oberzan plays a bizarre game of deliberate confusion, entrapping his audience in the inextricableness of illusion and reality, performance and life, identity and construction, sometimes as a character from a film, sometimes as Elvis and sometimes as his own alter ego.

Zachary Oberzan drew his inspiration for this piece from Close Up, a fictitious documentary film by Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami. Like in this film, Oberzan ignites a cunning game of confusion in his performance, guiding his audience into the shoals between fiction, documentary and reconstruction. Among other things, he makes an appearance as the hustler Aaron Aranovitch, who manages to dupe a whole theatre cast. Also, Oberzan impersonates Elvis and gives film-maker Kiarostami himself a key role in his performance. This way, THE GREAT PRETENDER celebrates the love for film and theatre and the desire to keep wanting to become somebody else.

Film-maker, director, performer and singer-songwriter Zachary Oberzan is a founding member of the Nature Theater of Oklahoma in New York, he performed with the Wooster Group and Richard Foreman and has realised several productions of his own. His most recent appearance at brut was in 2014 with Tell Me Love Is Real.

Pressestimmen

“Oberzan’s project does not resemble anything else … Very funny, very sad, very strange and very serious … An extremely impressive performance – not least in the level of detail when he shows his stage personality Elvis/Oberzan in various stages of barbiturate-intoxication, from the euphoric to absolutely helpless.” Adressavisen, Norway

“Oberzan throws a probing and uncomfortable glance at the exclusionary mechanisms and nervousness of the art scene … [An] even more radical approach to the topic than Danish dogma-directors … What gives the film, and secondary stories such a paradoxical authentic atmosphere, is [Oberzan’s] style of something naïve or non-calculated … What makes The Great Pretender so human and gripping is a self-examination affecting far more than himself.” Klassenkampen, Norway

Credits

Concept, direction, performance Zachary Oberzan; inspired by Abbas Kiarostami and Hussein Sabzian backing vocals Maya Mertens, Diede Blok dramaturgy, production, management Nicole Schuchardt light, sound, video David Lang consultation Eike Böttcher costumes Dorothea Andrae

A co-production by brut Wien, deSingel Internationale Kunstcampus, HAU Hebbel am Ufer Berlin, Beursschouwburg Brussels, Vooruit Gent, Black Box Teater Oslo, Gessnerallee Zurich, Teaterhuset Avant Garden Trondheim.

 

Dates & Tickets

November 2016

Thu. 17.11.2016 - Array
brut 16 € / 12 € / 8 €

Fri. 18.11.2016 - Array
brut 16 € / 12 € / 8 €

brut
Karlsplatz 5, 1010 Wien

October 2025
Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
    01 02 03 04 05
06 07 08 09 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23 24 25 26
27 28 29 30 31    

brut all over Vienna

brut nordwest

accessible

Nordwestbahnstraße 8-10, 1200 Vienna
Subway: U1, U2 (Praterstern), U4 (Friedensbrücke), U6 (Dresdnerstraße) Tram: 5 (Nordwestbahnstraße) Bus: 5A (Wasnergasse)
accessible

October 2025
Karin Pauer
LOW
October 2025
Season Opening Party
October 2025
Aperitivo
October 2025
Matteo Haitzmann
Im Styx baden
November 2025
Veza Fernández
Chantal, the body is a text longing for perspective
November 2025
Aperitivo
November 2025
Elena Lach & Ema Benčíková
Spacing in: Relaxed Performance Lab
November 2025
DARUM (Victoria Halper & Kai Krösche)
[EOL]. End of Life
November 2025
Drag Show with the Dragsau Collective
November 2025
Touch tour
November 2025
Alex Franz Zehetbauer
An Evening with

studio brut

not accessible

Zieglergasse 25, 1070 Wien
Subway: U3 (Zieglergasse), Tram: 49 (Westbahnstraße / Zieglergasse)
not accessible

October 2025
Lens Kühleitner & Olivia Hild
trace my layers, thrust your guts
October 2025
Aperitivo
November 2025
François-Eloi Lavignac
Fifth position
November 2025
Laureen Drexler & Giorgia Scisciola
PIERRE

Breitenseer Lichtspiele

not accessible

Breitenseer Straße 21, 1140 Vienna
U-Bahn: U3 (Hütteldorfer Straße) Tram: 10 (Laurentius Platz), 49 (Hütteldorfer Straße)

October 2025
Alex Franz Zehetbauer
An Evening with

WUK performing arts

barrierefrei

Währinger Straße 59, 1090 Vienna
Subway: U6 (Währinger Straße / Volksoper), Tram: 40, 41, 42 (Währinger Straße / Volksoper), 5, 33 (Spitalgasse), 37, 38, 40, 41, 42 (Spitalgasse / Währinger Straße)

November 2025
Maria Mam & Flora Renhardt
sk8r grrrl
November 2025
Simone Lorenzo Benini & Miriam Budzáková
Sandpit