“I don’t want to be someone like somebody else was once.”

This phrase is uttered repeatedly by Communication sophomore John Hickman, portraying the title role in “Kaspar,” Wave Productions’ first performance of 2004. Kaspar screams and whispers the phrase to inanimate objects — a chair, a table, a wardrobe — or to no one at all.

Unseen cast members introduce many words and phrases to the vocabulary of the show.

But for a good portion of the first act, Kaspar is armed only with the phrase, “I don’t want to be someone like somebody else was once.”

This 1967 play by controversial postmodern playwright Peter Handke is the true story of Kaspar Hauser, a 16-year-old boy found on the streets of Nuremberg, Germany in 1828. The original Kaspar was locked in a cellar his entire life, never encountered another human being and couldn’t speak.

In the play, Kaspar learns a single sentence with which he tries to confront society, reality and his existence.

“‘Kaspar’ confronts what it is to be human and proscribed norms of reality,” says Communication sophomore Nicole Ripley, the show’s producer. “Handke uses this story as a launching pad to explore human communication.”

“‘Kaspar’ isn’t the most commercially viable thing,” says the director, Communication junior Brian Deneen.

“It was difficult convincing a group of actors and designers to be comfortable not having all of the answers and giving them an a priori sense of direction,” he says.

The audience is addressed directly before the actors even take the stage, blurring the line of where the play really begins and ends.

Voices and sounds are heard throughout the theater, speaking to both the audience and Kaspar.

“This is the most eccentric role I’ve ever played,” Hickman says. “Kaspar’s about as offbeat as it gets.”

Hickman says he was nervous when he first received the role because he did not know how to approach it.

“It’s a totally different style of acting,” he says. “It’s much more physical theater — using your to body to direct your attention rather than just your eyes or your gaze.”

Hickman throws himself all over the stage as Kaspar. Clad in ragged, odd-looking clothing, he falls down, walks awkwardly and throws furniture.

Other ensemble members interact with one another through strange, often-silent movements, sometimes using slapstick comedy that resembles Charlie Chaplin.

“In the script, there is a left column with very detailed stage directions,” says Deneen.

“Sometimes they’re almost even misleading and contradictory,” he says. “To get the spirit and content of Handke’s script requires some alterations.”

Order through language and the power of language is a constant theme of the play. Once Kaspar masters language, he discards his ragged jacket for the navy one worn by the rest of the cast, symbolic of culture, Deneen says.

“We think in terms of words. What we call our personalities and the choices we make are characterized by the words we use and what we’re taught they mean.”

Hickman says that it’s interesting how language can sometimes be confounding.

“I would hope that watching this play would cause an audience member to recall or rethink their initiation into language,” he says.

“The play explores how if you don’t have a word for something it almost doesn’t exist, you don’t understand it — and at the same time you don’t have any fear of it.”

Because, as Hickman explains, “You don’t know the word ‘fear.'”

”Kaspar’

Who: Wave Productions

What: An avant-garde exploration of language, movement and little German boys who can’t talk

Where: Shanley Pavilion

When: Thursday and Friday at 8p.m.; Saturday at 8p.m. and 11p.m.

How much: $5 students, $8 general

Medill sophomore Rachel Wolff is a writer for PLAY. She can be reached at [email protected].