It’s no wonder that it ends with Massive Attack. They all stand there, at the edge of the stage, their masks pulled up so that only their eyes are visible before they disappear into the swirling fog. The headlights glisten again, then it’s over, while the legendary intro from “Teardrop” also blows away.
Previously there were attacks and attacks, playful, monological, sometimes as a tirade. A young Elferrat had chosen Friedrich Schiller’s “Die Räuber” and turned it into “Die Räuber”. The gender asterisk, which is so heavy in the stomach for some, of course also has a good helping of symbolic character. The six young women and five young men point this out right at the beginning. In this way, Schiller’s play is completely detoxified. Only Karl Moor (from a good, i.e. wealthy, family, later robber captain) and his bandit colleagues Spiegelberg and Roller remain. The quarrel with Karl’s brother Franz or the old father – left out.
Deconstruction or contemporary reduction?
And the women? In fact, they hardly take place at Schiller. After all, Amalia von Edelreich (the only woman in the play) is allowed to show the villain Franz the door, but not much more. This deconstruction of the Schiller text, which is more of a contemporary reduction, is reminiscent of this the Dresden drama premiere “The Magic Mountain” nine months ago, when the intersection of a Sibylle Berg text opened a new and necessary level for Thomas Mann, who was still dusty, male.
Schiller, too, is now not only metaphorically torn to pieces. The sheets of text trickle to the floor and are finally swept aside. Everything at the beginning, now that the paper is at the feet of the young and wild ones.
What happens on stage in these 70 minutes is pure Sturm und Drang, which rushes through the present like a fast-flying, incredibly agile projectile. The first meeting of Karl and Schellenberg is chorusically traced, also the finale with a burning city, innocent dead, the fight against a superior force and finally the escape of the robbers.
Despite all the romance, one thing is clear: Moor’s violence is not the solution either. This path does not point to a bright future. The parallel to today is Moors desperation with which he dedicates himself to his fight. Because even the young people up there on the sloping stage (which, so to speak, automatically creates body tension) despair of the burden of current problems: climate change, performance society, neoliberalism, consumption, school. You see yourself constantly confronted with expectations (it’s good to remember the past few months) and yet you expect something from the world – that is, from the elderly. They have at least understood that some things have to change fundamentally (first and foremost with regard to the climate), but other issues are not at all negotiable: The system question in Germany is a completely rhetorical one.
Be an actor, not just an activist
Again and again there are musical sprinkles, the stage becomes a room for debate (which looks like a rehearsal situation), the young actors step out of their roles. Leaving the piece is the equivalent of leaving your role as an observer of the world. They want to be actors, not just activists. And they are far from satisfied with being pushed back, with the same argument from the ancients: not yet. But this answer will not be able to remain a bulwark for much longer.
These “robbers” are a real teamwork. The term “collective” is used several times on stage when it comes to community and modern forms of coexistence. Like Schiller’s text, this word is freed from its monumental quality. The Strugatzki brothers say that it is mercy that distinguishes man from animals. If one understands by this not only compassion, but above all social responsibility for others, a basic demand that echoes from the stage comes very close.
The appeals made are only a bit too bold in the last ten minutes. Otherwise, the Bürgerbühnentheater has all the demands that it casually fulfills. You also know yourself, of course, and no, not just in an earlier version of yourself. Shouting “Patience!” To the boys? For free. This has not yet worked with any younger generation.
The eleven on stage are, despite the fact that they also radiate an honest forlornness from time to time, a hope. One would like to know what school background they have. Because these, such discussions should not only be held in high schools. So at this point the demand to smuggle classes of all school types into this piece.
Even if this recommendation seems quite bourgeois: the theater may not save the world, but there is hardly a better place to look at the problems of that very world. And that’s where it all begins.
next performances: June 27th and 28th
www.staatsschauspiel-dresden.de
From Torsten Klaus
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