Vergurkte "Odyssee" staging: Party-Papierschnipsel from the armored tube

Rough customs also prevail in Greek flagship families. "You little asshole", insulted Penelope her son Telemachus. As she says this, the woman with the futuristic silver hairstyle (Johanna Bantzer) has to fight through a sea of ​​cardboard boxes, in which she threatens to sink with every step.

As if she had not been punished enough. Her husband Odysseus, king of Ithaca, has not returned from the (Trojan) war for years, even though it is long gone. And the common son (Nils Strunk) squats limp and Oedipal complex on the ramp: in jeans and undershirt and obviously not amused to have to interrupt his computer game. It is just running quite well with the hopsenden lance warriors, which are kindly projected onto the back wall of the stage for the audience.

Dirty Talk and kitchen table psychology

But: "asshole", "crybaby", "tears like piss" - this insulting sada he can then but impossible to sit on. He gets up, slaps his mother and screams in her face, "You say I'm not a man, I'll prove it to you!"

Also, if anything suggests, we're definitely not in an eve series here. But it is the Berlin Volksbühne, in which this strained mixture of kitchen table psychology and dirty talk goes over the ramp. The director Thorleifur Örn Arnarsson introduces himself there with a contemporary version of the "Odyssey" as new acting director. It has to be said that this "retold" version of Homers around 700 BC. Chr. Epic about the wanderings of the war returnee Odysseus rather after the nineties or zeros sounds more sound like after today.

Until René Pollesch takes over the Volksbühne direction for the season 2021/22 from the current interim director Klaus Dörr, Arnarsson will remain as acting director at the house. Bearing in mind this opening premiere, for which he has written the text together with the author Mikael Torfason himself, this is not unreservedly gratifying news.

Pedagogically valuable poetry quotes

On the other hand, one could argue: Born in Reykjavík in 1978, Arnarsson, who learned his craft at the Berlin drama school "Ernst Busch", is above all known for the visual. Celebrated by the mythical classics that Arnarsson invites on the theatrical stages with the present, the main focus is on image architecture, not text.

And for truly spectacular aesthetics, audiences might overlook one or the other poetry citation: "You lose yourself in your deceptive ego, so you'll never find your true self!" Such pedagogically valuable clues, such as the nymph and Odysseus-affair Kalypso (Sólveig Arnarsdóttir) on their way are on the way, you can hear here churning.

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6 pictures

The problem is that in this "Odyssey" but even the pictures seem tapped. Even if the director lets the stage machine play excessively with his muscles. At first, the actors trample a war choreography on the boards for over 45 minutes, after all the live sound of the musician trio Gabriel Cazes, Damiàn Dlaboha and Sir Henry keeps one in line.

Confetti from the tank cannon

Later, a long list of wars in human history is read out, while Odysseus (Daniel Nerlich) repeatedly slips - what else - in a fake blood pool. Helena, who had broken out because of the Trojan war, drives with great frivolity on a tank, swings a red flag and squeaks with thin Nölstimmchen "justice" over the ramp - in felt endless loop.

So that even the last spectator realizes that this is not a revolutionary subject, but rather his exact opposite, colorful party paper snippets pop out of the armored tube into the auditorium. Hard to say how often this effect has been used in the theater.

The Greek beauty embodied by the well-known film actress Jella Haase looks extra naïve from the tank while she talks to her husband Menelaos (Theo Trebs) after the mouth. He presents his body, talks about fitness and beef diets and recounts internet sites by controversial Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson.

Erigierte presidential penises

Things get even worse after the break of this four-hour theatrical effort as the tie-downs of three grinning American presidents are shut down: Donald Trump, Bill Clinton and John F. Kennedy as oversized men's acts with erect tails.

"We are more complex than we think, life is more complex than the politicians try to sell us, and the theater is more powerful than it often seems," the director is quoted in the program booklet. He is certainly right. It would be even better, however, Thorleifur Örn Arnarsson would also bring this insight on stage in his remaining time as a director of drama.

"An Odyssey", Volksbühne Berlin, next performances on September 14, 21 and 22.