Director Schorsch Kamerun in Conversation with Marriage Guidance Counsellor, Wolfgang Schmidbauer
Schorsch Kamerun Trouble in Tahiti is set in the 1950s, in suburban USA. For the first time a broad social stratum has access to everything – in the sense of consumer goods. The two main characters have made one mistake: they believe this is enough.
Wolfgang Schmidbauer Many couples face a crisis as soon as they have got everything. As soon as the house has been built and the child born, the relationship becomes difficult.
SK As soon as the aim has been achieved one has to deal with what exists.
WS There is no such thing as permanent happiness. We are only able to enjoy the disparity.
SK But we live in a happiness industry. Capitalism cares for whatever keeps this system going. This started in the 1950s. However, this secure situation in terms of material needs does not assure happiness.
WS Women were especially affected. This is the prophetic aspect of Bernstein’s opera. Psychologists discovered this problem group only years later.
SK Does the child in Trouble in Tahiti play a decisive role?
WS The birth of a child is the most common reason why people get divorced in the first years of their marriage. If a child is born it attracts all the attention. The parents start to feel neglected and blame their partners for it.
SK Dinah and Sam are trapped in such a fatal situation – and obviously have been for quite some time. Bernstein speaks of a nine-year-old.
WS The first question that comes to the mind of a marriage guidance counsellor is: Why do they only have one child? Dinah would be much more occupied with more children.
SK In the 1950s members of the middle classes suddenly found themselves in a situation where they had to be fully responsible for their lives. Traditions and religion no longer gave them a foundation. Today, there is no real self-confident corporate identity anymore. Or maybe it hasn’t returned yet. Interestingly enough, the system is not questioned, although it is already damaged. We live in a time of extreme existential orientation.
WS The emergence of existential orientation is closely connected with World War II. Since then people have felt the need to complain more. And dissatisfaction is always linked to the lack of a consumer good.
SK Capitalism managed to create this situation and the advertising industry benefits from it.
WS What is advertised today is a certain attitude to life. I think our whole attitude to life has changed and a pathetic effort is made to negate reality. There are no more social changes, no more revolutions. There are events instead. That is why we live on the edge of numerous catastrophes which we exaggerate at first and then forget about.
