Good as hell!

"Tod & Deife" celebrates its premiere in the Small Theater

Created: 01/25/2022, 13:11

By: Volker Camehn

Knows about the weaknesses of souls: Mephisto, played by Franz Lohmair in a devious and enigmatic way, seduces Magdalena Faust (Bärbel Beier).

© Volker Camehn

A visually and eloquently powerful panopticon of the abysses and vanity is the play "Tod & Deife", which has now premiered at the Small Theater Haar.

Our criticism.

Hair

- It doesn't need more than the fist. Anyone who has read Goethe's masterpiece, the tragedy part 1, basically learns everything there is to know about us humans. The abysmal that is never without a reason, the fateful ambition, the irrepressible lust and greed, somehow desperate to counteract the transience with something... Because everything that comes into being is then worth dying of.

The author Roland Beier, active in the front row at the Munich Volkssängerbühne since 1987, has it very purposefully and unashamedly thick as a fist behind the creative ears with his new piece "Tod & Deife". The two-hour production, which premiered last Saturday at the Small Theater in Haar, is a visually and eloquently powerful panopticon of the abysses and vanity, a garish mix of moral portrayal and historical drama. There is no stinginess with lousy motifs and moments: Hanna Timm and Franz Rinberger bring a play to the stage, set in the time of the global economic crisis of the 1930s, in which almost nothing is left out. Starting with the bankruptcy of the Faust family, hatred of Jews, criticism of capitalism and burgeoning National Socialism - and only those who sell their souls to the devil can hopeto make ends meet reasonably well. Perhaps.

"Happiness is for losers"

And of course, hellishly certain arrogance comes before the fall, the arrogant Magdalena Faust (terrifically performed by Bärbel Beier) is even willing to sacrifice her children at the end.

"Luck is only for losers," she says at one point, not yet suspecting that her fortune will soon be over.

And please, let the hungry work.

She has no idea what hunger feels like.

One thing is undisputed: "Tod & Deife" sometimes wants too much, quite the opposite of the subtle and sophisticated stage design, for which author Beier is also responsible.

And the grandiosity of this directorial work lies less in its glaring, loud moments than in its subtle details.

For example, at the moment of her turning away from God, Magdalena Faust covers the cross, which previously appeared like a last icon of refuge, with her jacket.

A street musician (Ioannis Chrissostomidis, also musical director here) casually and briefly intones the Deep Purple classic "Smoke on the water" on the acoustic guitar.

A song that was written because of a casino fire in Montreux.

Just read Faust again.

A lot was also copied: It's teeming with quotes from "Faust", of course, but also Oscar Wilde ("Everything will be fine in the end. And if it's not good yet, it's not the end yet") Brecht's finger pointer from the Threepenny Opera "First comes the food and then the morals" shimmers steadily through the performance.

All's well, that end's well? Probably not. Mephisto (deviously played by Franz Lohmair) knows about the weaknesses of the souls he desires. It almost goes without saying that he is an unreliable contractual partner. The devilishly good thing about this material: "Tod & Deife" shows, albeit in a sometimes riotous way, how fragile the values ​​of the Enlightenment are. Precisely when things are not going as smoothly as desired, alleged certainties are quickly called into question. In times of conspiracy slobs and other dumb demagogues, this piece stands for an existential and clear message in a light way. Otherwise only one thing helps: just read Faust again.

Further performances