Deutsches Theater Berlin: “Everything’s wrong!”

A hunchbacked little man in a red sweater sits on the stage, a doll in a wheelchair; around it, elegant sideboards are placed like an enclosure for the immobile occupant with thin gray hair. There are almost a dozen clocks and a record player on the furniture. We recognize music stands, but not musicians. Welcome to the world of the general music director a. D.Dr. Karl Böhm! The old man is brought to life for almost two hours at the Deutsches Theater Berlin by the puppeteer Nikolaus Habjan.

The production, originally developed at the Graz Schauspielhaus, is entitled “Böhm”; Habjan is also responsible for directing; Paulus Hochgatterer wrote the text. Using plastic body shells (built by Marianne Meinl and Habjan), he makes the psychological depths of artist cult and political opportunism tangible. Because this Böhm, who is typically Austrian in love with titles and always calls himself doctor, became one of the most famous conductors of the 20th century as an unscrupulous Nazi careerist.

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At the DT we experience a nasty, hateful old man. If he speaks and becomes upset, he makes snapping movements with his head and neck; When Böhm opens his mouth, he apparently wants to bite the air. He may be missing the conductor’s stick, but every movement of his arm is a command. An untouchable pile of misery that keeps collapsing and only draws strength from negativity, because “Everything’s wrong!” is his favorite sentence.

It remains unclear whether the old man is really Böhm or a former elementary school caretaker who, as his carers suggest, is just playing the conductor. A clever trick that later enables the character to do something like self-criticism.

Flashbacks tell the story of how Böhm became music director of the Dresden Semperoper. His predecessor does not allow himself to be corrupted and does not betray his Jewish friends, which is a good reason for the Nazi cultural official, whom Habjan portrays as a Saxon oaf, to get rid of him and appoint the careerist Böhm. He doesn’t want to join the NSDAP because – aestheticist stupidity – he is already a member of one, namely the “musical party”, but he is happy to accept the position.

He later explains his recipe for success in a conversation with the violinist Schneiderjahn: “When political matters come your way, look at the grades.” Böhm legitimizes the fact that he and the violinist have their very well-paid jobs by pointing out that if the… one goes, the others move up for them. He equates the principle of generational change with the flight, expulsion and murder of Jews.

After the war, Böhm jetted around the world, including as conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. A reporter intercepts him and asks him why he is so rarely in Vienna. The director justifies everything with his contract, which allows him to make these trips. Nevertheless: In a gripping scene, Böhm is booed by an invisible audience choir, exposed in the light at the desk. This is how Habjan manages to convey the panic of the exposed person in his puppet show. Böhm resigns, claiming the mob has taken over. The SA was more well-behaved in its places.

Habjan manages to have a magnificent evening: he exposes the cult of artists and geniuses as a cheap rejection of the world by opportunistic private dictators who don’t want to know anything about others and their suffering, in order to indulge in the illusion of their greatness, which in reality was awarded to them by forces completely removed from art because they are selfish weirdos. The aimless precision of conducting is only torture, proof of submission. »Böhm« is not only recommended for tormented violin children, but also for everyone who wants to understand art religion as a myth of faint-hearted men.

Next performances: June 29th and 30th
www.deutschestheater.de

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