Only a few months left and Chemnitz will officially become the European Capital of Culture 2025. The theater is also preparing its program for this and is including the dramatic poem “Europe flees to Europe” by Miroslava Svolikova in its program. Unfortunately, the production at the Spinnwerk remains mostly superficial.
As soon as the audience enters, they are confronted with the myth of the kidnapped Europa: Sitting with a large golden book, Christian Ruth dressed entirely in white on the stage and reads in an exaggerated tone the story of how Zeus, disguised as a bull, kidnapped the Phoenician princess. But in the play “Europa flees to Europe” by Miroslava Svolikova The story ends differently: Europe kills the bull and takes over the new continent.
In Chemnitz, a piñata bull’s head is placed on the long white table as a symbol of this, to which a young Europa (Annika Ziegler) speaks and which she later uses with the help of her older version (Vera-Cosima Gutmann) into small pieces. While she sets the table with red plastic tableware as if for a child’s birthday party, this older Europa explains that she wants to build a continent without blood and power struggles. This plan is of course doomed to failure from the start: after all, her story in the new country began with the slaughter of the bull. And so the little kings, who sit at the table with crowns made of red plastic tableware, keep fighting each other.
All women (and girls) take on the role of Europe in Chemnitz. Photo: Nasser Hashemi
Clear colour concept on the Chemnitz stage
Later, too, the people of Europe repeatedly clashed with one another. They were not taken into account in the concept of justice for all. Especially not after philosophy explained individualism with a curly wig made of red plastic cups. Later, they set out and expanded the checkerboard playing field by adding more mats to the right and left – they called land acquisition colonization. The fact that Europe later complained that there was simply not enough room for everyone quickly took on a bitter aftertaste. And so it went on. Past war and walls, past environmental sins and visions of the future.
Outfitter Felix Remme has opted for a clear colour concept of black, white and red. The five-person ensemble is dressed in simple white dresses and, in one case, in white leggings, which are varied with red elements. The women wear wigs in power grey with braided strands that are reminiscent of the Drachenmutter from “Game of Thrones” and give them something ethereal. The red party tableware from the beginning keeps appearing, while the long table turns into a seesaw.
Director Sandra Maria Huimann illustrates the text, which is full of wordplay and shifts in meaning. The fact that she manages to convincingly involve a child is quite remarkable – it is not for nothing that people often warn against working with children and animals. The other ensemble members also get their moments to shine: Katka Kurze and Katja Marie Luxemburgboth of whom will later take on the role of Europa, seem so wonderfully lost and confused as farmers, that is, as losers in the birth lottery. Christian Ruth, who is usually always over-the-top, is so convincing as a priest that the audience hardly wants to accept a piece of candy from him. When Vera-Cosima Gutmann ends a kind of blind man’s buff game full of anger, it is touching.
Life itself, in all its colorful splendor, also plays a role in Chemnitz. Photo: Nasser Hashemi
Production in Chemnitz scratches the surface
But these moments are also convincing because they stand out from a plodding production. Gutmann’s dialogues often seem didactic and recited, as if there were too much text for a real character – and her approach to an excited and over-motivated Europa doesn’t help either. The fact that the sister’s two-person choir plays absurdly with echoes and that an overexcited figure runs across the stage with cuddly toys attached to it every time “life” is mentioned elicits laughter from only a few in the audience.
Dressed in colorful jackets, the three adults shake hands in a statesmanlike manner. They talk about the rainbow that shines over everyone, but must not be put under pressure so as not to be forced into a brown color. At the same time, they rudely push aside the child actress, who is reminding refugees with a life jacket. This image is surprisingly reminiscent (after all, the play premiered in 2018) of the current debate in which conservatives want to implement the plans of the right in order to take away their votes.
At the same time, there are hardly any big aha moments – it is just as well known that kings in Europe were constantly at war with each other as it is that colonization was not a humanistic mission. It is surprising that a journey through 4000 years of continental history can be so slow. So “Europe Flees to Europe” plods along in Chemnitz and causes slight fatigue in the audience. How we overcome the bloody history is not clear. Instead, the stage dances optimistically into the future – it would be nice if it were that easy.
