Edition: U.S. / Global


Published: December 6, 1987

THE 1919 GERMAN FILM CLASSIC ''The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari'' has been a favorite of Film 101 courses for a variety of reasons. Although its validity as a harbinger of the moral climate that permitted Hitler's rise to power has been debated, its significance for the cinema as a bold stylistic departure into a realm of fantasy and expression has remained indisputable. As originally conceived by Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer, and directed for the silent screen by Robert Weine, the macabre story focused on an asylum director named Caligari who hypnotically controls Cesare, a side-show somnambulist, to commit murders. In presenting their idea for the film, the creators were determined that it should be photographed in an innovative way, employing avant-garde techniques of expressionism then in vogue on the German stage. Susan Mosakowski's new stage version of ''The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari,'' which opened last Wednesday at the La Mama Annex, is -esthetically speaking - closing a circle begun seven decades ago.

''The visual impact of 'Caligari' is breathtaking, but that's practically a given,'' says Miss Mosakowski. who has written and directed - indeed created - the work. ''Stylistically, I'm interested in tapping the period and in the challenge of capturing on stage the very painterly look of the film,'' says Miss Mosakowski, who as co-director of the experimental Creation Production Company has generated more than a dozen theater pieces over the last decade that have been praised particularly for their visual effects. She and her partner, Matthew Maguire, each create their theater pieces individually, using a shifting ensemble of actors, musicians and designers, several of whom are called upon frequently. Sometimes they even use each other.

''We're going for all of the crooked angles,'' she observes of her approach to ''Caligari.'' ''We will get the look and feel of the original through makeup and histrionic acting methods. Caligari will have his white gloves with black stripes. And the set is mammoth. It will fill the large annex space at La Mama with 10-foot ramps, double stages.

''But when I studied the film, I wasn't only concerned with duplicating it visually,'' continues Miss Mosakowski. ''I was also interested in the story, the film's statement, and in what was generally happening in that time as it relates to today. I'm collaging texts, excerpting segments from Nietzsche, 'Julius Caesar' and Hans-Jurgen Syberberg's 'Our Hitler.' I'm interested in extending the story along lines having to do with the corruption of power. How power can be used to manipulate a culture to the extent that the culture is put to sleep to basic human values.''

By focusing on the content of ''The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari'' and rendering it for the stage in a way that is remarkably faithful not only to the film's look but to its many subplots as well, there is much to suggest that Miss Mosakowski is moving into more accessible territory. Her earlier works - while capturing a state of mind or evoking the creative process itself - have often been perceived as deliberately mysterious, albeit playful and visually striking. As Miss Mosakowski sees it, ''What unites all of my works is an exploration of a mental terrain. You're taken into a world that is a heightened representation of what you already know. You immediately have to drop your coordinates, your sense of the continuation of time in the plays. They're treated filmically - we jump from time to time, from new situation to new situation.''

Miss Mosakowski 36, graduated from the dance department at New York University before co-founding the Creation Production Company with Mr. Maguire in 1977, She recalls feeling ''disillusioned with the theater'' at the time. ''I was auditioning for Bob Fosse but I was also very familiar with Richard Foreman, Bob Wilson, Meredith Monk, the Wooster Group - the other 'garde.' But the work I wanted to do didn't fit any particular niche; the venue wasn't there. So Matthew and I decided to create our own, and since then we've been doing exactly that - the next piece is always a logical extension of wanting to do something that's unique.''

Today, she claims: ''I don't think twice about what motivates me. I made a commitment in 1977 to create a type of theater that incorporates many different elements in a synthetic way. This is already old hat. I mean, collaboration has been the big catchword for a while now. But what we mean by collaboration is a way of exploring all aspects of theater at the same time. The script itself is developed along lighting lines, scenic lines, musical lines, choreographic lines. You're looking at the whole right from the very beginning. Everything is hinged directly on everything else, on each moment. A point behind it all is that there is so much that's not alive in popular culture.

''Our kind of theater is designed to agitate, to awaken people, to be so fast-moving that there are many things to watch simultaneously. But also to leave open the idea of discourse and interpretation on the part of the audience. It's not always comfortable; it may be too fast for some people. But that's part of the intention.