Landsberg - “Antiquity is not buried,” says Helmut Schäfer, one of the three founders of the Mühlheim “Theater an der Ruhr”. Because the problems that deal with their dramas are unsolved: Problems that define people - and therefore cannot be solved. Which is why the theater is once again putting “Antigone” on the program, but in the modernized version by Thomas Köck, “antigone. a requiem ”. Simone Thoma plants a concentrated load of media on this in her staging. The result, seen on Saturday evening in the city theater, is impressive. And deeply disturbing.
Köck transports the ancient question of conscience versus constitutional law into today: It is no longer the dead Polynices who may not be buried, but the many dead refugees who are washed up on the Mediterranean shores of Europe, pose the elementary question whose poles are Antigone and Creon. Whose dead are they? Who takes on the responsibility, the guilt and thus - due to humanity - the obligation to intervene in whatever way?
Director Thoma builds a talk show around the basic structure of the drama, in which the drama staff are the guests, Kreon is the moderator: Potusí-TV, named after Potusí in Bolivia, witnessed the exploitation of the silver miners there in colonialism - and as the location of the first Silver coin the "cradle of capitalism", as the first talk guest, Ismene, explained to Creon. A brief reference to Ismene's future projects, topic checked, next guest. In the media world, there is no time for questions of conscience. They provide the characters from Antigone, partly as projections, as correspondents with whom Creon speaks. The position of referee is taken over by the choir, which surrounds the stage like a rear audience - and thus reflects the audience.
Antigone's mantra: "They are our dead".
Because of our existence in the global world, we all bear responsibility for them - and thus also guilt.
Kreon's contra: “We are not the world's cemetery.” We can only take care of our own, the largest possible framework of which is the state.
Our responsibility ends beyond the border, because "everything has a border".
Thus the state is the law, the law is the “ground of our community”, the basis “so that we can bear each other”.
Because actually man is a wolf to man.
Antigone counters this with what makes people human: their values.
The frame
The Theater an der Ruhr draws a wide arc with its staging. Potusí-TV is the name of the format with which the theater streamed to the outside during the lockdown, a result of an excursion by some members of the ensemble to Potusí. They brought with them the question of human values and their scope. Sophocle's basic question is reflected here twice: in Köck's update and in Thomas Transport on the subject of modern media and their handling and effects on human tragedies: everything is wiped away with one click.
But as Helmut Schäfer already formulated: There is no solution to the fundamental problem that ultimately asks about the good or the bad of human beings. The Sophokles-Köck-Thoma drama also comes to this point where the protagonists revolve around the insoluble core. The point at which theater co-founder Roberto Ciulli appears. Popular as a cave explorer, he turns out to be a prophet of the end times: "You are tearing the last bit of life out of the last niches."
It is not a hopeful picture that the Theater an der Ruhr is painting. But an impressive one. Costumes and stage design (Elisabeth Strauss / Adriana Kocjan) alone in modern media coldness, paired with surrealistic elements and the video recordings by Peter Wedel create images that last. The ensemble is outstanding, and Fabio Menéndez stands out as a slick moderator and law-abiding, rationally acting Creon. Or Gabriella Weber as Ismene, child of the media and carefree zest for life. All actors act calmly, put Köck's not easy text in the foreground, play it out. And yet part of the text is lost in the piece itself due to the overstimulation of the concentrated media presence. One would like to stop, press the pause key, rewind, please repeat this sentence,to actually understand it - too late, the medium is already three steps ahead of us. This is how the media criticism eats itself in Thomas' production. And that is probably also intentional. At least the viewer experiences directly what behavior patterns information in today's media environment evokes in people. Or, more precisely, what it threatens to cover up: the need to keep questioning the unsolvable questions. "The truth is reasonable for people," Ingeborg Bachmann is quoted in the play. Because this confrontation with the truth is what, according to Thoma, keeps a society alive.At least the viewer experiences directly what behavior patterns information in today's media environment evokes in people. Or, more precisely, what it threatens to cover up: the need to keep questioning the unsolvable questions. "The truth is reasonable for people," Ingeborg Bachmann is quoted in the play. Because this confrontation with the truth is what, according to Thoma, keeps a society alive.At least the viewer experiences directly what behavior patterns information in today's media environment evokes in people. Or, more precisely, what it threatens to cover up: the need to keep questioning the unsolvable questions. "The truth is reasonable for people," Ingeborg Bachmann is quoted in the play. Because this confrontation with the truth is what, according to Thoma, keeps a society alive.
At the very end, Ismene ignites a spark of hope: “In view of these dead, shouldn't we ...?” She asks.
Whether to continue or not is out of the question.
Asking questions is the essence.
And Ismene has a clear answer to this: "Yes, we do."