Whether on Broadway, in Taiwan or Europe: Mummenschanz has been world-famous for 47 years and puts on a hundred shows a year. Floriana Frassetto, co-founder, talks about the pearl, memories of its beginnings and the future.
The 68-year-old Swiss woman remembers how she founded Mummenschanz in Paris in 1972 together with Andres Bossard and Bernie Schürch. "I'm always amazed at how quickly time flies. 'Mummenschanz' comes from the word 'vermummen' and 'schanz' from the French 'la chance'." Shortly after it was founded, Mummenschanz performed on Broadway and remained there for three years.
However, most Americans didn't understand the name and called her "Woman's Chance" or "Mother's Chance". She has countless memories of her time on Broadway. "Many actors came to see our show." One evening, Woody Allen was even in the audience. "What I like best about New York is that so many different cultures come together," says Floriana Frassetto and adds: "Mummenschanz tells stories that everyone feels and thinks about in the same way. That's why we humans are all basically the same."
After just six months on Broadway, two more Mummenschanz formations were put together and trained so that Mummenschanz could be performed all over the world. Today there is only one group - with understudies for the younger artists so that they can also take on other engagements. Floriana herself is on stage for every performance and doesn't seem to have had enough. "I feel most comfortable when I'm on tour for at least six months a year." Floriana's favorite destination is South Korea. "I love the people there - and the food," she enthuses. As Mummenschanz has its own performance technique, it has never been easy to recruit new artists. "You have to look at all these little gestures to get to the essence. That is Mummenschanz." But Floriana is not only on stage.
She also designs masks and is the artistic director of the show. "I'm fascinated by designing masks, working with colleagues and constantly coming up with new ideas." Although the latter is not so easy, because the ideas never come when you need them, but always when you expect them last. You might think that after 47 years, the nervousness would eventually wear off. But Floriana still has a healthy dose of nervousness in her every performance. "You never know what to expect or who is in the audience." For her favorite scene, which she performed together with Mummenschanz co-founder Andres Bossard, they put cake batter on their faces, tasted it and then ate the batter off each other's faces. "Once I put too much water on my face so that the dough splashed onto the stage floor." Thanks to Floriana's experience and improvisation skills, everything ended well after all.
Mummenschanz has been timeless for 47 years. For Floriana, there is only one explanation for this: Mummenschanz causes the audience to forget their problems for an hour and a half. "We also forget our problems on stage." Floriana has also experienced difficult moments in her life. For example, when Andres died. "I cried in the dressing room before I put on my mask. But when I went on stage, I was in a different world. That's why I call the show "You & Me" - every single person in the audience and all the artists on stage dive into another world together."
Mummenschanz has no music apart from a few noises - this touches people's emotions at a deep level. "I never thought we could make such a pearl bloom." Many audience members saw Mummenschanz 30 years ago and are now attending the performance again - with their children. "Hopefully our pearl can continue for a long time to come."