2023-11-17 04:35:26
“Men’s Pain” was the name of a 1986 cabaret piece by Uli Brée that showed men in their self-importance and patheticness. This coup from yesteryear comes to mind when you see principal Herbert Föttinger and Erwin Steinhauer as two old schoolmates who have grown old, discussing life and the blows of fate they have suffered in the Theater in der Josefstadt. “See you next Friday” is the name of the piece by Peter Turrini, which premiered on Thursday.
The bookseller Richard, affectionately called “Richie” by the waitress, has made contact with a fellow boarding school colleague from his old days and is waiting for him at his local bar called “Zur Czech Embassy”. Romance Studies lecturer Werner actually arrives, albeit three academic quarters late. The re-encounter is quite stiff in the first few minutes, because the two people in their mid-sixties were actually never friends, on the contrary: one was ridiculed as a “fat Jesus” and preferred to be in the library than on the sports field, the other still boasts today that they are Not understanding women back then, but rather fucking them.
Two roles in which Steinhauer (as Richard) and Föttinger (as Werner) feel very comfortable – especially since life dramas soon emerge behind the facades in which the deep ideological rifts that actually separate the two hardly play a role anymore. Werner’s cancer diagnosis and Richard’s confession that his girlfriend has left him bring the two of them very close together. The fear of illness and being alone is stronger than the lack of understanding between refugee aid workers and conspiracy theorists.
In “See You Next Friday” Peter Turrini shows what has distinguished him since his first plays: his deep affection for people and his comprehensive knowledge of their weaknesses. But he also gives those who have loved him for decades and cheered him as they bowed at the end of the premiere a few things that make this love a little more difficult. So the play, which only has development but no actual plot, has serious problems at the second meeting. From Orban to “Flinten-Uschi”, many controversial political attitudes are discussed without creating any added value. The two-and-a-half-hour performance including the break could have used a lot of drawbacks.
Director Alexander Kubelka focused more on strengthening those parts that give the piece a metaphysical dimension beyond a simple old man’s dialogue. It starts with the inn setting, whose interestingly designed ceiling lamp can serve a wide variety of functions and associations between UFOs, pendulums and carousel games, and ends with the supporting characters, who, in contrast to the main characters who are increasingly revealing themselves, all have secrets.
There is the snarky waitress Jana (Silvia Meisterle), who has been beaten blue by life and her ex-husband and yet has discovered something very beautiful that she doesn’t reveal; the deaf-mute Peterchen (Marcello De Nardo), who ran away from the orphanage, is constantly present in the guest room and seems very strange to the lecturer right from the start, and finally a short bride and groom (Andrea Mühlbacher and Sascha Layer) who celebrate their love in the guest house and thus creating chaos that marks the beginning of the end.
No, nothing will be okay, you can eat as much liver dumpling soup and drink Kozel beer. Turrini has no good news to announce to today’s society or to the older and old men in the audience. While the bookseller ends up losing his friend and the piece, the lecturer reluctantly agrees to dance with Peterchen. His made-up face reveals: It’s a dance of death.
(By Wolfgang Huber-Lang/APA)
(SERVICE – “See you next Friday” by Peter Turrini, direction and set design: Alexander Kubelka, costumes: Elisabeth Strauß, with Herbert Föttinger, Erwin Steinhauer, Silvia Meisterle, Marcello De Nardo, Andrea Mühlbacher and Sascha Layer. Premiere at the Theater in der Josefstadt , Next performances: November 17th, 20th, 21st, 26th, 29th, 30th Tickets: 01 / 42700-300, www.josefstadt.org)
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#Cheers #length #Turrini #premiere #Josefstadt