Between Self and Character: In Conversation with Zarah Kofler

Zarah Kofler: I grew up in a town in the Austrian Alps. As a teenager it was my dream to become a fashion designer, so after completing my training as a tailor and graduating high school, I moved to London with little more than ambition and curiosity.

There I worked as a seamstress for the designer Robert Wun and collaborated with Charles Jeffrey on Loverboy, among others. At the time, Loverboy was a collective of young artists creating spaces for experimentation, self-expression and reinvention. Inspired by the theatricality of the New Romantics and London’s Blitz Kids, we explored fashion as a form of performance, supported early on by Vivienne Westwood and McQueen who provided materials and textiles.

Through that world, I was signed by Anti-Agency and Let It Go Management and began working as a model. It was also my first introduction to performing on camera, in projects such as Angel Rose’s The Cool Universe. Gradually, I realised that what fascinated me most was no longer the making of things, but the possibility of inhabiting a character. Looking back, that shift was connected to my early artistic experiences as a child. I played and performed music, took dancing classes and was part of various hip-hop crews.

In 2018, driven by that curiosity, I moved to Berlin, where I discovered theatre and fell in love with it. My first productions were created at P14, the youth theatre of the Volksbühne at Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz.

I honestly can’t think of anything else I’d stick with so consistently.

What drew me to theatre was its ability to create entire worlds and societies that operate according to their own rules. For a brief moment, those imagined realities become something everyone in the room can experience together. I was fascinated by the sense that, within this art form, anything might be possible and allowed and that has stayed with me ever since.

At the same time, I’ve become increasingly aware of how fragile the conditions that make this freedom possible actually are. Publicly funded theatres, festivals, cultural institutions and independent artistic spaces are facing growing financial and political pressure. Along with them, the spaces in which those alternative worlds can emerge.

For me it´s a big gift to have been performing at the Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz since autumn 2021 under the artistic direction of René Pollesch. I was captivated by that theatre and its people working there. I wanted to absorb and understand everything. I wanted to be part of it and experiment within it, like I started doing at P14.

In November 2021 I made my debut on the main stage in Herr Puntila und das Riesending in Mitte by René Pollesch as part of one of his legendary women’s choruses (plus 1 Token). Alongside Franz Beil, Inga Busch, Christine Groß, and Astrid Meyerfeldt.

In the following seasons I had the opportunity to work in numerous productions with national and international directors, as well as many outstanding artists and actors. I also got to experience life as a touring artist, performing at festivals such as the Festival d’Avignon and Wiener Festwochen. It has been a privilege to learn from such highly respected and inspiring colleagues, whilst being both supported and challenged by them.

The permission to fail.

The text. If there is no text yet, attitude.

I never lose sight of the fact that I’m standing on a stage or in front of a camera. At my best, I’m completely present and attentive to everything happening around me. The preparation is already there, my task is to trust it and remain open to something unexpected happening.

I love that acting allows you to inhabit language and status. That you can speak and act like a king or a drug baroness without having to bear consequences. That you can dedicate yourself to the most beautiful and ugliest texts in drama, turn them inside out, and scream them out into the world.

The body opens up endless possibilities for expression, action, and storytelling. During a creative process, you decide what form they take. For me, the more consistently a decision is carried through, the more interesting it becomes.

I feel like it’s part of the work to also make it my own. The personal note is added automatically through one´s own engagement with the material. Or through the many small individual decisions you make in order to reach a point where the character´s thoughts can genuinely emerge in that very moment. These can be very simple, even mundane things that you hold on to in order to enter a certain state of mind or to find a reason to do certain things.

This work has taught me that I don´t need to add anything extra to be enough.

Last summer I portrayed Shakespeare’s Lady Capulet in Romeo and Juliet – The Greatest Show on Earth by Gregor Bloéb adapted by Thomas Brasch at the Tiroler Volksschauspiele, a theatre festival in my hometown.

With this role I had the opportunity to step outside my usual work environment to play a powerful andopportunistic mother figure which strengthened my autonomy as a performer. In order to claim and embody that high status, I had to fail a lot along the way.

By having a shower.

In theater you get on stage and throw yourself into the story. You tell and experience it together with everyone in that room from the beginning to the end.
In film, you usually throw yourself into individual scenes out of chronological order, scenes that can be repeated. You tell the story in a more intimate way.

Primary residence: stage. Secondary residence: camera.

I would love to turn that secondary residence into a second primary residence though.

In Julien Gosselin’s Extinction, I played Fräulein Else, a historical character by Arthur Schnitzler. I found my way into the role primarily through her fate: a young woman walking a fine line between trying to use the weaknesses of patriarchy to her own advantage and ultimately risking being fucked over by that very system.

In Method, together with Johanna Wokalek, Martin Wuttke and the rest of the ensemble, we developed both the characters and the evening’s storyline through improvisation, in close collaboration with Kornél Mundruczó and Kata Wéber.

As the queen´s bodyguard, Jessica in Weiße Witwe by Kurdwin Ayub, I carry a real AK-47 that was modified for the stage in order to protect Queen Aliyah. And that definitely does something to you.

Working with different artists keeps reminding me that every role demands its own approach. Sometimes you find your way in through an idea, sometimes through the body, and sometimes through the particular situation you’ve been thrown into.

My ongoing collaboration with the Viennese writer and performance artist Lydia Haider. Between 2022 to 2023 we monthly hosted the Halbtoter Salon at the Roter Salon of the Volksbühne. This led to many additional performances and readings of her work, including Wort des lebendigen Rottens and Näher zu thee, hehr Beidltum (Österreich).  Speaking Lydia Haider’s words is, for me, a challenge, an act of devotion, and a form of liberation all at once.

One was learning to walk again after undergoing surgery for a subarachnoid haemorrhage caused by a ruptured brain aneurysm. After a long stay in intensive care, the moment I managed to take a few steps on my own for the first time became deeply etched in my memory. It reminded me of that immediate sense of pride you feel as a child when something that seemed impossible suddenly becomes possible.

Another defining moment occurred during the filming of Fictional Healing by Daniel Hopp, which showed me what artistic work can set in motion. Drawing on personal experiences, Daniel developed documentary and (docu-) fictional scenes together with people affected by addiction. Their stories, dreams and fantasies were explored through conversation and then restaged with both non-professional and professional actors.

One participant, Nadja, asked us to recreate a first reunion with her children, who had recently been taken away from her. During the process, a strength and determination emerged in her that ultimately led her to make the decision, while we were still shooting, to begin withdrawal treatment immediately and enter a rehabilitation clinic.

I LOVE MY MAMA, SISTERS, NIECES AND ALL THE BEAUTIFUL, BADASS WOMEN WHO WALK THIS ROAD WITH ME. SUPPORTING EACH OTHER EVERY DAY AND FOREVER.

Kings Del Wepa.

Electrolytes are life-changing!

That I’m spicy.

She’d probably think my life is pretty exciting and wonder why I still haven’t managed to buy my parents a house in Tuscany.

I’d tell her: your delusion will pay off.