Effi Briest – allerdings mit anderem Text und auch anderer Melodie (Effi Briest – although with a different text and a different melody)

Initially, the premise seems like one of these typical, rather forcedly original repertory ideas: Effi Briest’s tragic death-by-virtue, staged as a gag-filled radio show. So it is all the more surprising how smoothly musical silliness and serious narration enter into a love match. In the cozy, plushy-armchair atmosphere of “Radio Briest”, Clemens Sienknecht and Barbara Bürk merge the essential scenes of Fontane’s Wilhelmine tragedy of grievances with the easy-going pseudo-liberty of the Seventies, combining them into a trippy musical. And it works, because these two eras continually serve as mirrors of each other’s embarrassments. The desire to flaunt the rules of the prevailing codex leads to mishaps of unsuccessful liberation in both these periods. Of course, this patchwork of key scenes in serious costumes and punchlines from a provincial radio-station full of embarrassing types in paisley shirts and sweater vests is sewn together with the thread of irony. But the way this becomes a grand, entertaining celebration of sad contemplation – that is the ultimate hit.

www.schauspielhaus.de