Messages for the Universe
Show details :
Cast: Lum: Yannick Becker, Purl: Johanna Adam, Klaus Alberts; Kleist :Daniel Bucher, LdF; Unhold: Valentin Späth / Benedikt Häfner, Dicke Frau; Unhold: Daniel Plier, Rafinesque; Unhold; eine Erscheinung: Emöke Boldizsár, Politikerin; Unhold: Christina Juks, Hilda; Unhold: Ana Tiepac
By Wolfram Lotz
Directed by: Josef Maria Krasanovsky
Playwright: Genia Enzelberger
Assistant director: Paula Breuer
Translated by: Eva Frățilă
Scenography: Josef Maria Krasanovsky
Costumes: Andreea Săndulescu
Video: Dan Basu (Video Mapping) / Oszkár Mucha (Trailer)
Music: Claudiu Urse
Project manager: Hunor Horvath
Cast: Lum: Yannick Becker, Purl: Johanna Adam, Klaus Alberts; Kleist :Daniel Bucher, LdF; Unhold: Valentin Späth / Benedikt Häfner, Dicke Frau; Unhold: Daniel Plier, Rafinesque; Unhold; eine Erscheinung: Emöke Boldizsár, Politikerin; Unhold: Christina Juks, Hilda; Unhold: Ana Tiepac
Premiere date: 14 .11.2019
Performance in German, with translation into Romanian and English
Show type :
Comedy, Drama
Duration :
1h 30min
Would you like to send a message to the Universe? Via text message, WhatsApp or perhaps e-mail? What is this message that is so vital to human existence on Earth? What is the meaning of life? What happens after we die? How do you fight your inner emptiness? Is it worth feeling troubled, revolted for your wishes and interests? What allows us to be here? Does everything happen by chance? What is transitory, what will survive: our crazy present or the future? What is real, what is important and what is “toxic”? These are just some of the questions extended to the audience by the latest show by the German Department, a new production of “Eininge Nachrichten an das Al” / “Messages for the Universe”, by Wolfram Lotz, directed by Josef Maria Krasanovsky.
“Messages for the Universe”, the most daring contemporary play. In “Messages for the Universe”, by Wolfram Lotz, ten completely different, unusual characters try to find answers to the questions above. Critically acclaimed as “the smartest, most unreal and naughtiest contemporary play”, this creation is scattered with impossible director’s notes and annoying footnotes that seem to come to life outside the ever-flowing text. The play questions the limits of human communication, breaches all the rules of classic playwriting and challenges theatre and its definition from all perspectives. “Messages for the Universe”, by Wolfram Lotz, is often presented as the smartest play in our days.
‘Staging “Messages for the Universe” is like drawing the architectural plans of the Tower of Babel. Lotz asks us, theatre makers, for the impossible. He asks for the character to disappear from the spectator’s eyes, asks for the actor to interpret not playing. Lotz’s theatre challenges us to find stage solutions and methods. This can take one to the depths of despair or simply make one fall in love with him, as it happened to me. Despite the show not having a narrative, it keeps the important eternal questions: Who are we? What makes it worth living? Is there a meaning in this big All? Lotz asks questions very passionately and I’ve tried to transfer this passion to the characters in the performance. This is a show that brings no answers, but rather raises questions about questions. To me, this is the concept of the show: be overwhelmed by the great questions that answer answers. In other words, if you wish: a show that paints pictures about All and philosophies about Nothing...’
Josef Maria Krasanovsky, director.
Absurd comedy is characteristic of Wolfram Lotz’s plays.
Wolfram Lotz is considered one of the most appreciated playwrights of contemporary theatre. Born in 1981, the author doesn’t write “well-made plays”, breaking away from traditional theatre. His plays don’t serve, but challenge theatre. Not because he doesn’t believe in it, on the contrary. His plays are scenic utopias in which a different world is designed, a different kind of theatre, a different view on reality. Even though absurd comedy is a characteristic feature of his plays, in fact, these are very serious. The author mocks irony and, through the use of living images, creates a space of infinite possibilities, giving free rein to fantasy. Through his plays, Lotz forces theatre to reinvent, renew itself.
Wolfram Lotz is not content with half-measures. He challenges, dismantles, destroys... and rebuilds. The author, coming from the world of poetry, meets theatre through the eyes of a stranger, constantly defying the laws of classic dramaturgy. In his plays, the outside world is reflected in successive fragments. There are no taboos. The search for the presumed meaning of existence becomes a philosophical thrash can, in which characters are tenderly given life, while experiencing the pervasive fear of their life going by.
“Einige Nachrichten an das All” / “Messages for the Universe” was supported by REBTIC Company, the Austrian German Forum, IFA - German Institute for International Cultural Affairs.
Special thanks to the Sibiu County ASTRA Library, the Sibiu Democratic Forum of Germans, “Ilie Micu” School of Arts and Crafts and Mrs. Beatrice Ungar.
“Messages for the Universe”, the most daring contemporary play. In “Messages for the Universe”, by Wolfram Lotz, ten completely different, unusual characters try to find answers to the questions above. Critically acclaimed as “the smartest, most unreal and naughtiest contemporary play”, this creation is scattered with impossible director’s notes and annoying footnotes that seem to come to life outside the ever-flowing text. The play questions the limits of human communication, breaches all the rules of classic playwriting and challenges theatre and its definition from all perspectives. “Messages for the Universe”, by Wolfram Lotz, is often presented as the smartest play in our days.
‘Staging “Messages for the Universe” is like drawing the architectural plans of the Tower of Babel. Lotz asks us, theatre makers, for the impossible. He asks for the character to disappear from the spectator’s eyes, asks for the actor to interpret not playing. Lotz’s theatre challenges us to find stage solutions and methods. This can take one to the depths of despair or simply make one fall in love with him, as it happened to me. Despite the show not having a narrative, it keeps the important eternal questions: Who are we? What makes it worth living? Is there a meaning in this big All? Lotz asks questions very passionately and I’ve tried to transfer this passion to the characters in the performance. This is a show that brings no answers, but rather raises questions about questions. To me, this is the concept of the show: be overwhelmed by the great questions that answer answers. In other words, if you wish: a show that paints pictures about All and philosophies about Nothing...’
Josef Maria Krasanovsky, director.
Absurd comedy is characteristic of Wolfram Lotz’s plays.
Wolfram Lotz is considered one of the most appreciated playwrights of contemporary theatre. Born in 1981, the author doesn’t write “well-made plays”, breaking away from traditional theatre. His plays don’t serve, but challenge theatre. Not because he doesn’t believe in it, on the contrary. His plays are scenic utopias in which a different world is designed, a different kind of theatre, a different view on reality. Even though absurd comedy is a characteristic feature of his plays, in fact, these are very serious. The author mocks irony and, through the use of living images, creates a space of infinite possibilities, giving free rein to fantasy. Through his plays, Lotz forces theatre to reinvent, renew itself.
Wolfram Lotz is not content with half-measures. He challenges, dismantles, destroys... and rebuilds. The author, coming from the world of poetry, meets theatre through the eyes of a stranger, constantly defying the laws of classic dramaturgy. In his plays, the outside world is reflected in successive fragments. There are no taboos. The search for the presumed meaning of existence becomes a philosophical thrash can, in which characters are tenderly given life, while experiencing the pervasive fear of their life going by.
“Einige Nachrichten an das All” / “Messages for the Universe” was supported by REBTIC Company, the Austrian German Forum, IFA - German Institute for International Cultural Affairs.
Special thanks to the Sibiu County ASTRA Library, the Sibiu Democratic Forum of Germans, “Ilie Micu” School of Arts and Crafts and Mrs. Beatrice Ungar.
