Photo: Paulina Triebs
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January 05, 2022
“Fire Snake” in the Orangery – Prologue 01/22
Once upon a time there was an arms manufacturer who wanted to export fully -, uh, semi-automatic weapons to the “land of the mustaches”. But the local ministries had reservations about delivering to troubled provinces. At the request of the arms manufacturer, the “Land of Mustaches” confirmed that the arms would be needed precisely where there was peace and quiet – and everyone congratulated each other on the successful deal.
It is similar in Philipp Löhle’s “Fire Snake” farce, which addresses the arms trade. In the center: The arms manufacturer “Lecker und Loch”, easily to expose as Heckler and Koch, who is known to be embroiled in an absurd dispute with an East German competitor about an order from the Bundeswehr. Director Tim Mrosek staged this farce as a diploma staging of the Cologne Theater Academy. It doesn’t just have to do with the current issue. Diploma productions should offer the graduates “opportunities to show themselves in a variety of ways” and everyone should be represented as equally as possible, says Tim Mrosek. Löhle’s “fire snake” serves all three aspects in abundance. Germany is one of the world’s most important arms producers and exporters, and Heckler and Koch is an international player of the highest order, which Löhle shows in a wonderfully grotesque way while doing business. His piece is also a huge kaleidoscope with numerous roles, which places scenes with Lecker and Loch and the federal ministries next to scenes from a classroom or with indigenous gods – a scenic material store with completely different atmospheres of the grotesque.
“We worked out a dramaturgy together,” says Tim Mrosek. To do this, the team read a lot, watched films, finally condensed Löhle’s piece, and developed additional own material such as a framework story or vocal interludes. Mrosek, who likes to create his pieces out of the empty stage space, was also seduced: “You come up with very cinematic ideas”. Therefore, for example, the props are piled up on the stage. Incidentally, weapons are also among them. As is well known, material battles are known not only in war, but also in the theater.
Fire snake | R: Tim Mrosek | 11-15.1. 8 p.m. | Orangery Theater | 0221 952 27 08
HANS-CHRISTOPH ZIMMERMANN
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