Die Kontrakte des Kaufmanns

Constant comings and goings among the audience dominate this unexpectedly pleasurable production which seeks to prove what many already know: that capitalism is evil. Director Nicolas Stemann performs here practically as a solo entertainer on stage as well as off, a virtuoso of both microphone and grand piano, who permits the audience as well as the actors to escape outdoors. Each performer gives themselves and the audience as much of Jelinek’s text as they wish. “Most of the theatre people I know, whether they’re directors, writers or actors, are governed by fear. This is understandable, but it does no good!” Stemann writes in the programme. And he calls for a theatre free from fear, one which wants to invite people to think and look, to fail and triumph in the art of reciting texts, to be an artistic space to catch one’s breath and air one’s brains. The stage is a great mess of grand pianos and armchairs and sofas and an electronic display which always shows the number of pages of Jelinek’s text which everyone in the theatre still has left ahead of them. And while the countdown is called out from page 99 to page 1, a rather joyless text on the subject of exploitation, misanthropy and avarice provides the basis for a compelling and entertaining spectacle.