Munich Volkstheater: Böll's "Katharina Blum" at the start of the season
Created: 09/23/2022, 16:40
By: Michael Schleicher
The Munich Volkstheater opened the season with "The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum".
© Gabriela Neeb/Munich Volkstheater
The Munich Volkstheater has started the 2022/23 season.
To kick things off, director Philipp Arnold staged "The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum" based on Heinrich Böll's story.
Almost 50 years is a long time.
And of course, almost 50 years have left their mark - also in the work of a Nobel Prize winner for literature.
When Heinrich Böll's story "The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum" was published in 1974, the republic was in a state of excitement.
"Should the description of certain journalistic practices show similarities with the practices of the 'Bild' newspaper, these similarities are neither intentional nor accidental, but inevitable," wrote Böll (1917-1985) quite woodenly at the beginning of his book and castigated later "Bild" - and thus also the politics of the time - as "almost an official government newspaper".
The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum was first published in 1974
Yes, times were different - in society, in politics, in journalism - when this story appeared.
It is told in the sober-dull style of a report how the title character, an inconspicuous - above all: irreproachable - 27-year-old was targeted by the tabloid press through her relationship with a criminal, who from then on and with the support of the police launched a brutal campaign against Katharina Blum moves.
The young woman finally believes that she can only save (revenge?) herself by murdering the reporter.
Böll only called "Bild" in the text "ZEITUNG", but it was always clear who the author was accusing.
Strong double: Nina Steile (left) and Ruth Bosung in "Katharina Blum".
© Gabriela Neeb/Munich Volkstheater
And now?
Is this material still relevant at a time when anyone can rush the Internet, and many do it?
Today the (anonymous) mob on Facebook, Twitter and Co. no longer needs journalists to unleash a shitstorm against people or institutions.
The Munich Volkstheater avoids answering this question at its first premiere of the new 2022/23 season - and shifts the focus of the narrative.
Munich Volkstheater: resident director Philipp Arnold staged “Katharina Blum”
Director Philipp Arnold, who has already set up a wonderful “Macbeth” and a shrill “Bunbury” at the house, and dramaturge Leon Frisch have adapted Böll's prose for theatrical productions;
Thursday, September 22, 2022 was the premiere of the almost 90-minute evening.
The version and the costumes by Julia Dietrich leave the story roughly in the seventies.
Otherwise the staging sticks to the template quite conscientiously, which sometimes leads to a more well-behaved Böll rendition than to exciting theatre.
However, Philipp Arnold ultimately manages to use a simple directorial trick to get sparks out of the well-hung text: he cast the title role twice – and found two actresses in Ruth Bohsung and Nina Steile who can work wonderfully in this constellation.
You make this evening worth seeing.
With the doubling, the perception shifts away from looking at the mechanisms of tabloid journalism and the police and towards the emotional world of the victim: finely tuned to each other down to the smallest gestures, Bohsung and Steils show the desperation, the incredulity and also the anger of their character .
This is particularly impressive when Bohsung stands in front of the gauze curtain and watches the live camera images projected on it, which reflect what is happening in the apartment:
Here, Blum is condemned to be a spectator of her own life.
In addition to the strong performance of this duo, the three actors remain pale.
also read
Oktoberfest hits 2022: "Layla" and her sisters checked
Stephen King turns 75: his new novel "Fairy Tale" is coming to the cinema
Ruth Bohsung and Nina Steile convince at the Munich Volkstheater
However, the production is not only convincing because of the two main actresses.
Sebastian Pircher's film work and Viktor Reim's stage design are also successful.
When the "ZEITUNG" published the first article, the partitions, which until then had limited and protected the rooms, were raised for the first time.
Katharina Blum is finally at the mercy of the public.
Heavy applause.