Theater Magdeburg: Ronald M. Schernikau: Marble run instead of communism

Lorenz Krieger, an ensemble member at the Theater Magdeburg, steps forward, stands in front of the audience – he is wearing a tight-fitting dress – and sings the queer and somehow moving song “For today I am a child”. And when you see Krieger like that on stage – the long hair, the delicate mustache – then you know: an actor here is supposed to look like Ronald M. Schernikau.

Why? Schernikau’s “Small Town Novel” is on the schedule. In the announcement, the municipal theater in his Saxony-Anhalt hometown attests that the text is “a literary sensation,” which is hardly in dispute, and sums it up: “45 years after the publication of his debut, the relevance of which is astonishing in terms of both form and content, Schernikaus is considered Work as world literature.« This at least proves that the theater as a place of utopia is not yet finished.

Schernikau is of course not an insider tip. But one cannot claim that his work would be appropriately and sufficiently appreciated. In any case, his publications are not usually given the attribute “world literature”. The author’s early death from AIDS at the age of 31 will not be blameless. The further, probably more important reason lies in the fact that this writer, despite the overwhelming spirit of the times, called himself a communist.

»Small Town Novelle«, published in 1980, is the slim debut of a 19-year-old, an alternative to the trivial coming-of-age novel. A book written in the precocious tone that only those who are very young and very intelligent can have. It is the know-it-all attitude of someone who really knows things better. And “Small Town Novel” is of course also the story of a gay teenager whose rebelliousness is taken almost more seriously than his homosexuality.

The subject of this self-described novella can be quickly summarized. The protagonist, harassed by the state detention center school, sleeps with a classmate who doesn’t like the confrontation with his own sexuality and who therefore becomes an informer of his “seducer”.

Now in Magdeburg the Schernikau actor Krieger, the author’s “small town novella” alter-ego b. also includes his short-term lover Leif (Anton Andreew) and his mother (Nora Buzalka) on stage. The book, which does not live from the events described, but from its reflection, and which turns a provincial story into a story about – not just youthful – self-assertion, is flattened because the director Florian Fischer merely tries to tame it scenically.

Unfortunately, on stage, “Small Town Novelle” is just the story of a gay incident that would probably be very different today. How sexuality is shown here is revealing: because people obviously really want to show it; As in Hollywood, everything has to be choreographed under covers.

The clever narrative voice gives way to the strenuous dialogue. Because a full-length stage spectacle rarely takes place under 80 minutes, the text is generously enriched. A few marbles are thrown loudly into an overly long marble run. Fog wafts across the stage. Sparkling wine is served. A costume is supplemented with a knitted penis and the audience is given a performative illustration of what is probably encompassed by the term “toxic masculinity”.

Passages from Schernikau’s “Irene Binz” are completely unexpected. “Question” and his infamous speech at the last writers’ congress in the GDR are spoken, played, distorted beyond recognition. Anyone who is not familiar with Schernikau’s work will hardly know what to do with the scraps of text. Anyone who is already familiar with it will be annoyed by the depoliticization and ultimately banalization.

The production has the character of a party at which the guests present their poorly acted good mood. Everything here should be wild and loud and bright. Probably because you think it’s close to the author. The fact that he didn’t rely on effects but on attitude doesn’t come across.

A stage adaptation that would do justice to Schernikau’s work would have to show more stubbornness and not deny the political, so to speak. With “The Beauty of East Berlin” (Deutsches Theater Berlin, 2014), “Legend” (Volksbühne, 2019) and “Heaven is there. “Heaven begins down here” (Anhaltisches Theater Dessau, 2022), there have been a few attempts in recent years to bring Schernikau to theater. The Magdeburg production leaves you rather perplexed, even though the effort may have been honorable. Maybe another theater will try it again with a little more skill. Until then, the interested public will have to pass the time by (re-)reading Schernikau’s thousand-page “legend”. That’s definitely not the worst thing.

Next performances: October 12th, 27th and November 6th

www.theater-magdeburg.de