By Elfriede Jelinek
A very personal text about saying goodbye to the earth — Falk Richter stages a dense fabric of text, music, drama and AI visual worlds.
Elfriede Jelinek has written a new play. Jelinek’s latest work “Asche” is a deeply personal text about the loss of a beloved companion, the fear of loneliness, the decay of one’s own body and, at the same time, the fear of the impending end of human civilization. Jelinek takes another look at the great myths of creation: what is the world, how did it come into being, why is the human body so susceptible to failure and why were we humans such unbearable “evil guests” on this planet who will soon have to leave - if humans continue to devastate all the foundations of life. But where to? Because the gods no longer want us and “people were not obedient to the earth, but only to their leaders”, Jelinek allows herself a tragicomic thought experiment: Why not create an unconsumable parallel earth? A never-aging, never-ill whole with a perfect body? That would be practical. It would also have been better to make the sea out of plastic right away, that would have saved us a lot. Now we have had to throw a lot of plastic into it to come to this conclusion. This touching text oscillates between sarcastic thought loops and bitter realization. And what do we get in the end? “But all singing is over now. And in the evening, when we go to sleep, what do we do? We do not sing, we do not bloom. Think about our suffering. Nothing else”.
Falk Richter, who most recently staged Jelinek’s “Am Königsweg” (Production of the Year 2018) at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg with great success, is devoting himself to Elfriede Jelinek’s new text together with set designer Katrin Hoffmann, costume designer Andy Besuch, sound designer Matthias Grübel and video artist Lion Bischof. “Asche” continues a long tradition of Jelinek (premiere) performances at the Münchner Kammerspiele.
- With Bernardo Arias Porras, Katharina Bach, Svetlana Belesova, Johanna Kappauf, Thomas Schmauser, Ulrike Willenbacher
- Directed by Falk Richter
- Stage Design Kathrin Hoffmann
- Costume Andy Besuch
- Music & sounddesign Matthias Grübel
- Video Lion Bischof
- Lighting Charlotte Marr mit William Grüger
- Dramaturge Viola Hasselberg
- Assistent to the Director Hannah Waldow
- Stage design assistance Nikolai Kuchin
- Costume assistance Tom Schellmann
- Stage Manager Barbara Stettner
- Soufflage Jutta Ina Masurath
- Director's internship Philine Helm
- Stage design internship Charlotte Grunewald, Christina Schuldheis
- Costume internship Johanna Seitz
- Dramaturgy internship Jonas Hirner
- Theater pedagogy Filo Krause, Scherief Ukkeh
- Artistic management Zora Luhnau
- Technical management Jonas Pim Simon
- Stage Master Thomas Graml
- Stage Machinery Michael Preusser, Florian Obermeier
- Lighting Tobias Fisch, Tankred Friedrich, Parthasarathi Sampath Kumar, Mirko Mayrold Neubauer
- Sound design Ulrich Treutwein, Katharina Widmaier-Zorn
- Video Ikenna David Okegwo, Thomas Zengerle
- Make-Up Sylvia Janka, Alyssia Achille, Thomas Opatz
- Costume Lotta Goeden, Jessica Watermann, Nico Vanni
- Props Anette Schultheiss, Sabine Schutzbach
- Carpentry Hannes Zippert, Josef Piechatzek, Sebastian Nebe, Wolfgang Mechmann
- Locksmithery Fritz Würzhuber, Jürgen Goudenhooft, Andreas Bacher
- Decoration Tobias Herzog, Maria Hörger, Anja Gebauer
- Painting hall Evi Eschenbach, Ingrid Weindl
- Theatre sculpture Maximilian Biek
- Surtitles Yvonne Griesel (SPRACHSPIEL), Gitta Honegger
- Translation Gitta Honegger
- Performing rights Rowohlt Theaterverlag
MK: Backstage
Press reviews
“For anyone familiar with the author’s style, “Asche” is a masterpiece that Richter gets to grips with congenially.”