New play in regards to the AfD by Lukas Rietzschel | EUROtoday

Lukas Rietzschel appears to be like on the individuals within the mouth. His novels “Strike the World with Your Fist” and “Spaceman” replicate exemplary opinions, attitudes and habits, though these are solely expressed by components of the inhabitants and are vastly exaggerated in literary phrases.

But when the author, who lives in Görlitz, was commissioned by the native Gerhart Hauptmann Theater to create a stage play for its venue in Zittau, he truly got down to seize the individuals’s voice and seize it for the performing arts. He is alleged to have had greater than 100 conversations, the outcomes of which have been integrated into “The Exemplary Life of Samuel W.” The premiere on the weekend appears to be an ideal match for the 2024 election yr.

However, the piece is before everything about native politics. Bernd, the mayor, needs to be re-elected, however is challenged by Samuel W. Before an election occasion (appropriately in a theater), the incumbent thinks about shaking arms together with his opponent. His celebration buddies cease him, in any case, such a photograph solely means unhealthy press within the occasion of an election defeat. Samuel W. has retreated to his dressing room anyway.

But who is that this Samuel W.? The precise stage play begins with this query, the historical past of which is projected as a video in black and white. The candidate’s biography then emerges from a puzzle of snippets of dialog, generally introduced solo and generally in a semi-synchronous group, which reproduce loads of genuine phrases from Rietzschel’s analysis. In just below an hour and a half we discover out that W. comes from a provincial city in jap Germany – “it doesn’t get any further east”.

The sheer innocence of a great world of rising prosperity

Born within the Nineteen Eighties, he grew up in instances of upheaval and skilled the devaluation of not solely his mother and father’ work, however that of a complete area. This has an affect on him and people round him, first arousing the will to interrupt out of his distress and transfer to Hanover (“All the foreigners there and how ugly the cities are!”), however then the defiance that makes him much more connected to his outdated homeland to be. He gained new expertise with the federal authorities and the police: “That just solidified his whole world view.” He rapidly turned away from the FDP, which he sees as a “training company” for his AfD profession.

What Lukas Rietzschel captured in his many conversations is reproduced on stage by an especially agile quintet who act with none mounted position project, however who determine themselves as a decent married couple, a fats neighbor and down-to-earth, grumbling employees. The truth {that a} fence is being erected to begin with doesn’t bode effectively. This is about differentiation. The views of the actors differ considerably. A quintessence of the individuals’s voice, for which Rietzschel has distilled GDR issues in addition to the hole between East and West, crude opinions on September 11, 2001, on refugees and restrictions due to “such a flu” in addition to on Russia’s conflict towards Ukraine.

The textual content is intentionally saved as a collage; its implementation by performing director Ingo Putz alternates between cabaret slapstick and touching scenes. A white home is constructed on this facet of the white fence, with a white grill, then a pool from which a white dolphin later emerges, a white desk tennis desk – the sheer innocence of a great world of rising prosperity. Needless to say, the 2 ladies and three males are additionally wearing white, as even the beer bottles and grilled sausages are shiny white (tools and video: Sven Hansen). But the dissatisfaction can’t be coated up; individuals complain as a lot as they will. Not capitalism, however socialism is pure exploitation (despite the fact that individuals supposedly solely slept and drank within the corporations). The labor market, then again, ought to be known as the employees’ market. There are additionally loads of platitudes, for instance about Wessis: “People who can’t do anything, but can talk about it well.” It will quickly be solely a small step from upheaval to civil conflict.

The view of group service in nursing as “a task for subhumans” is much more blatant. On a second degree, the dancer Elise de Heer displays the occasions as an agile monument wordlessly from a pedestal: a profitable addition to the ensemble efficiency.

The theater election night involves an finish in one other video sequence. Samuel W. withdraws his candidacy for mayor and needs to make use of his power to turn into Minister of the Interior. This is the place shade instantly comes into play. First within the projection, then on stage, when Mayor Bernd stands in entrance of the white voters: “Long live the mayor!” His personal celebration members had betrayed him out of sheer opportunism and opted for the extra excessive different from the proper, as a result of that will usher in funding might. “After seven years there will be another election. . .” – the individuals’s voices are wanted.