"Valentiniade" at the Munich Residenztheater: Don't mess with the Krischperl!

Created: 2022-12-18, 3:14 p.m

By: Michael Schleicher

They bow to Karl Valentin's work - and continue it into the present: the actors of the "Valentiniade", which Claudia Bauer staged for the Bavarian State Theater.

© Birgit Hupfeld/Munich Residenztheater

Claudia Bauer staged the premiere of “Valentiniade.

Sportive singspiel by all means” with texts by Karl Valentin and Michel Decar.

Our premiere review:

The drop was high.

At least as high as the three-story scaffolding that Andreas Auerbach built on the stage of the Residenztheater.

But probably higher.

Anyone who messes with Karl Valentin is often thrown off course – and quite rightly so.

Don't mess with the Krischperl!

The tragic comedy and comic tragedy in the work of the Munich folk singer and author (1882-1948) can hardly be interpreted in an appealing way today, also because this work is so closely linked to its authors - just don't forget Liesl Karlstadt!

- and their performance.

"Valentiniade" was the last premiere in 2022 at the Munich Residenztheater

Nevertheless, director Claudia Bauer, together with author Michel Decar, dared to do it;

her "Valentiniade.

Sportive singspiel with all means" premiered on Friday (December 16, 2022).

First of all: The uptight, forced title is pretty much the only cruel thing about this almost two-hour evening, which was warmly applauded after the premiere.

Claudia Bauer was at the Berliner Theatertreffen 2022 with "humanistää!"

Bauer, who received the 3sat prize this year for her Ernst Jandl work "humanistää!" (Volkstheater Wien) at the Berlin Theatertreffen, is not looking for quick jokes or bon mots in Valentin's work.

Instead of taking the nearest pointen exit, which artistically would only lead to others being ashamed anyway, she takes the path into the depths of life and work.

This becomes clear right from the start, when a tracking shot is projected onto the stage between the shelves of Penny at Preysingstrasse 42.

Valentin is said to have been forgotten after a performance in the house where the “Bunter Cube” cabaret was located there and locked up overnight.

Shortly afterwards he died of pneumonia, which he probably caught in the unheated rooms.

Bonjour sadness.

Michel Decar wrote the play “Philipp Lahm” for the Residenztheater in 2017

The director supports Decar, who showed in his debut novel "A Thousand German Discotheques" how he likes to fictionalize and how funny he is, and whose play "Philipp Lahm", which tells a lot about Germany and little about football, also premiered at the Staatsschauspiel in 2017 their drilling into existential layers: the native of Augsburg has very skilfully interwoven texts by Valentin and Karlstadt - including "Der Flug zum Mond", "Der Petitteller", the wonderful "Klagelied eines Wirtshaussemmel" and, of course, the "Orchestral Rehearsal".

He has also written his own monologues that could be Valentin's (“our favorite urban neurotic”, as Decar calls him) self-reflections: hesitant, hesitant, anxious, lonely – and yet again and again defiant and combative.

"I only exist to avoid destruction.

This sets the tone for a revue that takes its time to develop the scenes and let them take effect.

The ensemble – decked out by Patricia Talacko as a Valentin doppelganger – follows this path with enthusiasm and strong voices.

The “flight to the moon” may be complicated, but the troop succeeds in (almost) everything else.

The eight actresses and actors also convince with their physicality (which Valentin himself used very consciously) and in the vocal parts: the composer and pianist Michael Gumpinger set Valentin lines and Decar texts to music as couplets, which he performed with Leo Gmelch (tuba/bass trombone). and drummer David Paetsch interpreted live: jazzy, pop, slanted.

Often everything together like in the opening song "Gucci, Gucci, Leberkäs al dente".

It was a wonderful evening

who celebrates "despite everything".

And that's not the worst attitude right now.

(More theater? Read our premiere reviews of “Joy 2022” at the Munich Kammerspiele and “Das Käthchen von Heilbronn” at the Residenztheater here.)