“Persona: A Hilarious Youth Opera on Self-Portrayal and Social Media”

The show begins in the anteroom. A boy helps his mother to scan the QR code: “The camera automatically shoots it!” Others try unsuccessfully to connect to the Internet, but then the all-clear is given in the hall: the connection only works well inside. Even before it starts, the performance is a lesson from young for old. “The flight mode is really cool,” says a younger man to an elderly woman a row further back. “This applies to calls, but you can still turn on the WiFi.”

In the opera “Persona” for everyone from the age of twelve, staged by Thierry Tidrow, Franziska vom Heede and Zsófia Geréb at the Staatstheater Darmstadt, the audience should become part of the play. This is achieved through surveys that are played on the smartphone, the majority decides. The mobile phone, or what happens on it, is also the core of what happens on stage. Charlie (Nike Tiecke), Alex (Clara Kreuzkamp) and Rocco (Leon Tchakachow) are influencers and tell the social network “Persona” their lives – that’s the only way the offer stays free. “Use every post as if it were your last!” calls the program’s artificial voice, a little too shrill. It’s about reinventing yourself: as a better version of yourself.