MEDIATHEK

The project is based on a short story by Jules Verne. The swiss clockmaker Zacharius is celebrated throughout France and Germany for having invented the escapement, and is fiercely proud of his successes. As artist, he is even comparing himself with God and believes to have discovered in his works the secrets of the combination of soul and body. But one day, all of the many clocks he has made and sold have begun to suddenly stop, one by one. Unable to fix any of them or to find a reason for the phenomenon, Zacharius falls into mental torment and becomes seriously ill. A bizarre clocklike creature offers to give Zacharius the secret of the clocks' failure in exchange for the hand of his daughter in marriage. Zacharius refuses, and the creature disappears. One morning Zacharius is found to have disappeared from Geneva. He has left in search of an iron clock sold to one Pittonaccio in a castle in Andernatt: it is the only clock of his that has not been returned to him, and thus the only clock apparently still working. In the castle he finds his still functioning masterpiece, but also meets again the clocklike creature, who introduces himself as Signor Pittonaccio. Zacharius, believing his life to be wrapped up in the fate of the clock, agrees to let Pittonaccio wed his daughter against her will, thinking the marriage will grant him immortality. But the clock bursts and its spring breaks out and flies across the hall, with Zacharius, shouting that it is his soul, in pursuit. Pittonaccio seizes it and disappears into the ground, and Zacharius, having become a slave of hubris who believes "there is nothing but science in this world," dies immediately. In our music theatre piece the principal musician actor and speech performer (Daniele Pintaudi) embodies the figure of the clockmaker Zacharius. Together with the kinetic sound sculptures of Martin Müller the music ensemble of 9 players is representing a great, bizarre clockwork mechanism. Zacharius introduces himself as godlike creator and demonstrates his absolute control of his works. Suddenly the clockwork mechanism refuses its obedience and develops e life of its own. In a final dialogue, the clock confronts Zacharius with the shocking insight that he is not the almighty „Lord of time“ as he was thinking, but only a part of the clockwork mechanism.