Comrade Shakespeare – Affentheater | nd-aktuell.de

The fascinating thing at the work of the comrade Shakespeare lies in his timelessness. A man from the distant 17th century explains the world to the person of the present. The Berlin Ensemble nevertheless invited to a staging entitled “Future Macbeth”, as if a lot of dust had to be knocked down to make the old on stage again. So one could have guessed that this “Macbeth” could not correct a future declared by the theater maker.

We are in the new house, a side venue of the Berlin Ensemble. Stas Zhyrkov shows a directing work for which a number of students from the nearby University of Actor Ernst Busch was hired. The author of this evening is not called William Shakespeare, but Pavlo Aria – and he has given the good to give a new coat of paint. But to whose favor?

Genosse Shakespeare

As you like it: Every two weeks, Erik Zielke writes about great tragedies, political lubricating theater and the fools from the past and present. He finds inspiration from his comrade from Stratford-Upon-Avon.

You can find all columns here.

In Bittersüßer Irony, »Future Macbeth« begins with a small abuse. Theater is, we learn that at the latest now, the entertainment program for the privileged people who otherwise have no problems. Otherwise, the human abysses are laughed at heartily. Then the “Macbeth” is told in the quick run, with which you, too, can actually be felt.

Nevertheless, you play the piece, updated thoroughly and a little shortened, along the Shakespeareschen dramaturgy. A few jokes are installed. Almost every actor gets out of his role as planned in order to then strictly find his way back into the figure according to the text book. The director’s team cannot defend itself with the stimuli of the Mitmutzheater. So the whole thing does not look so much like “Future”, but a bit like postmodern theater fashions of the nuller years.

King Duncan, the bloody victim of the climber Macbeth, explains to us all kinds of things about the nature of various types of monkeys in a stage talk show. “Infantizid means that the alpha male, as soon as it has come to power, kills the boys of his predecessor, that is, the one who comes from another male,” we learn. Politics is shortened to visit a zoo. Where there used to be scenes, there is a lecture on biology today.

Shakespeare, which is known to be not a monkey researcher, shows us the dynamics of power policy with his 400 -year -old piece. He demonstrates the coming and walking of the political staff – and the bloody game behind the scenes. The title figure caught up in power structure, the victim of which will soon threaten to become themselves. “Macbeth” is not a homage to the status quo, but its unadorned analysis.

Aria and Zhyrkov make us forget the analysis and find their thesis between trash and permanent risk: violence is enrolled in the DNA. Man is an eternal monkey. As it is, it will always stay. And who may believe in it – does it still need art and theater? The future rarely looked so backward.