Grimmige Märchen

Where? On a sofa cushion in the living room. Under a sofa cushion in the living room. Inside a sofa cushion in the living room - which bounces us, thanks to a trampoline, straight into the fairy-tale world of the Brothers Grimm. What? A fairy tale for adults and all those who want to grow up. A revue of more than 60 fairy tales from the collection of the Brothers Grimm, in addition to the appearance of the Swiss "Birrlischüttler" - a favourite moral tale for children in Switzerland – as written by the children’s author Lisa Wenger.

Herbert Fritsch and his ensemble celebrate the black human soul with a black mass. To do so they flip the cushion on our sofa, turning it upside down to reveal all that has been musty and mouldy since time immemorial. These are our primitive fears, and the Brothers Grimm gave them a name and a face: a wannabe frog prince (Florian Anderer) and a Thrush-stubble (Markus Scheumann); a picked-on Hansel (Elisa Plüss) and Little Snotty Riding Hood (Anne-Ratte Polle); Snow-witty-White (Claudius Körber) with Golden Ass Marie (Henrike Johanna Jörissen); Wrinkle-Rapunzel (Friederike Wagner) and the wicked-cruel stepmother-cum-stepfather (Nicolas Rosat).

Their hour of fairy tales, as celebrated here, is a milestone in theatrical experience and breaks new ground for the ensemble. The director and set designer manage to give us an oversized fairy tale of eerie intensity, thanks to an excellent ensemble performance. Or are we watching high-level competitive sport here? And if so, what performance-enhancing drugs are Fritsch’s athletes taking? With our willing applause, of course. 

The cast of bucolic Fritschians act out of their skin and have the courage to break taboos with regard to the most beautiful bourgeois institution since the invention of democracy - the family: for they expose the family as a breeding ground of horror. We should already salute this achievement alone. Understanding fairy tales, moreover, as giving literary form to primitive humanity and original evil is even worthy of a prize. Anyone who forces us to watch as they beat the dust in this way from a cushion - that perfect underpinning of middle-class comfort on which we've sat through the ages – is, in these times of political insanity, holding up a critical mirror to society. 

(Daniele Muscionico)

• distrib

  Direction
  Herbert Fritsch 

  With
  Henrike Johanna Jörissen, Elisa Plüss, Anne Ratte-Polle, Friederike Wagner, Florian Anderer, Claudius Körber,
  Nicolas Rosat, Markkus Scheumann

  Stage design
  Herbert Fritsch

  Costumes
  Victoria Behr

  Light
  Gerhard Patzelt

  Dramaturgy
  Evy Schubert

  Surtitles (french)
  Dóra Kapusta  
  
  

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