A study of loneliness by Ulrike Schwab and Juliane Stadelmann with music from Paul Lincke’s Frau Luna , newly arranged as a radio play.
Mr. K. died. Nobody noticed. For weeks he was lying dead in his apartment. No one noticed, no one who would have missed him. Until the stench of the and decay through the corridors.
None of the neighbours knew his first name. Nobody knew more about him than the fleeting greetings in passing about a human being. That and the music, he heard. Quite loud – probably because of the already deaf to the ears. Operetta music. After the the unnoticed death of the old man she spirits through the Corridors of the tenement house, the heads of its inhabitants
and triggers questions. About our living together, the anonymity of the big city, missed encounters, unfulfilled dreams. This music, which they have been playing for the last few years only like strange, inappropriate earwigs has accompanied, seems to connect the five protagonists now. Without them really knowing where these melodies actually come from or what they tell about. Like their fellow men. That’s the famous Berlin air.
Who would have thought that this fine, quiet play about the loneliness of five tenement dwellers – premiered in the summer of 2019 – would one day become as relevant as it is today, after months of lockdown experiences?
And who could have foreseen, back when we were arranging the revival, that we would not be able to show it on our stage, mind you, in compliance with all known safety and hygiene measures? Renewed lockdowns have moved us to look for another form in order to be able to offer you the much-acclaimed production after all. And since we suspect that many of you will not want to look at the monitor again in the evening after long hours in front of the screen, we propose another format: the audio play.
The two authors, all participating artists and a newly engaged technical team have spent the last weeks transforming the stage play into an audio version.
With: Angela Braun, Martin Gerke, Jörg Daniel Heinzmann, Maja Lange, Vera Pulido
Text: Juliane Stadelmann
Idea/Setting/Direction: Ulrike Schwab
Arrangement: Misha Cvijovic
Stage/costume design: Jule Saworski
Musical direction/arrangement: Jörg Daniel Heinzmann
Sound design: Vera Pulido
dramaturgy: Marion Meyer
radio play editing: Ulrike Schwab, Juliane Stadelmann
Production: Thomas Güthaus
Sound engineering: Malte Bogner, Joshua Park
Assistant director/production manager: Anna Pechtl
Production: Neuköllner Oper
Photo: © Matthias Heyde