Baby Talk (Musical)
| Musical dates | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Baby talk |
| Original language: | German |
| Music: | Thomas Zaufke |
| Lyrics: | Peter Lund |
| Premiere: | April 30, 2000 |
| Place of premiere: | Berlin, Neukölln Opera |
| Place and time of the action: | Berlin , today |
Baby Talk is a two-person musical in three acts by Peter Lund (text) and Thomas Zaufke (music) and is subtitled Das Kinder-Krieg-Musical . The play was premiered at the Neukölln Opera and is published by Litag-Theaterverlag. It is the first joint work by Peter Lund and Thomas Zaufke.
action
Charlotte and Robert have everything they could wish for: a functioning relationship, enough money to finance it, common ideas about life, love and their future life. The lawyer and the teacher have been a couple for fourteen years and have comfortably arranged their lives between work, leisure and adequate wealth. But the biological clock is ticking quite audibly in their mid-30s, and after all, Charlotte and Robert didn't move to Berlin to look at children's playgrounds either. Charlotte and Robert want a child. Not a problem these days. Both are healthy, have one job and two rooms too many, and love has worked out pretty well for the past fourteen years.
Questions like: "Is it - now - the right time?" , "Do we want a son or daughter?" Or "What should our child inherit from us?" Quickly become the only topic of conversation. Both realize that they didn't know each other as well as they had previously suspected. The discussion about having children suddenly becomes a test for the relationship. While Robert has already been condemned to twenty years of emotional house arrest, Charlotte is more afraid of the circumstances that such a pregnancy can create: “I have a job and I don't feel like it; To run through this job as a balloon for nine months. ”She also fears that she will be cut off from every return to work. It turns out, however, that she doesn't really know what she actually wants either: “I like children, I just don't like having them.” Since it's best to keep such silly visions to yourself, the conversations between Robert and Charlotte shrink exactly in the proportion in which the tension increases. After discussing all the imponderables and realizing that you may not know each other as well as you thought, the time has come anyway: The first ultrasound image triggers euphoria. “I don't care what it becomes; how it will be, I hope: good! " Actually, Robert knows exactly what he wants, namely a son: " I would love to have a son, because when he comes, I already know him. "
In the end everything turns out a little differently than expected: The lovers actually split up, and the final scene shows that “Marble, stone and iron grow old with time. That old bridges break, like promises. "
reception
The play is about togetherness, about the last real teamwork of mankind: It's about having children. While the first part of Baby Talk is fast, amusing, and engaging, the rest of it becomes more profound and melancholy. It's not just about the question “child - yes or no?” , But also about “me and you” . What begins as an easy-going relationship box, culminates in a showdown on the existential questions of family planning, and astonishes by the fact that it is the man here who is so desperately longing for procreation.
The sometimes quite cynical, pointed dialogues make Baby Talk a bittersweet cocktail of closely observed relationship portraits and cheerful, bizarre, but also thoughtful songs.
Thomas Zaufke composed the musical for piano, clarinet, double bass and guitar. The songs are primarily oriented towards blues songs and archetypal bar jazz.
premiere
Baby Talk was premiered on April 30, 2000 in the Neukölln Opera and performed again on July 6, 2008 in a newly rehearsed version.
Ensembles and productions
Ensemble of the first season
April / May 2000 at the Neukölln Opera
- Production: Peter Lund
- Actors: Frederike Haas as Charlotte and Leon van Leeuwenberg as Robert
Ensemble of recovery
June 2001 at the Neuköllner Oper
- Production: Peter Lund
- Musical director: Bettina Koch
- Actors: Nicole Rößler as Charlotte and Leon van Leeuwenberg as Robert
July / August 2008 at the Neuköllner Oper
- Production: Peter Lund
- Musical direction: Hans-Peter Kirchberg / Bettina Koch
- Set designer: Thomas Fitzpatrick
- Actors: Agnes Hilpert as Charlotte and Uli Scherbel as Robert
Further productions
- 2000: TheaterNativeC, Cottbus Director: Matthias Härtig (with Daniella Erdmann and Matthias Greupner)
- 2002: Theater Hagen , director: Peter Zeug (with Birge Funke and Uli Scherbel )
- 2005: Inbühne Weimar (with Gloria Marks and Peter Frank)
- 2008: Theater Plauen-Zwickau , director: Friederike Barthel (with Andrea Reichel and Jörg Simmat )
- 2010: Landestheater Coburg (theater in the riding hall), director: Hendrik Müller (with Katrin Dieckelt and Jason Tomory)
- 2010/2011: Landestheater Eisenach , director: Gabriel Diaz (with Kati Farkas and Thomas Christ )
- 2013: Frank Serr brought the musical as a guest performance with Nina Henrich and Mathias Förster on the following stages: Festspielhaus Fürstliche Reitbahn in Bad Arolsen, Stadthalle Hockenheim, Kulturhaus Wittenberge, Kurhaus Bad Bevensen, Theater im Forum Alte Werft in Papenburg, Hessisches Landestheater Marburg , Theater im Castle garden in Arnstadt, Sinsheim town hall, Wolf-Ferrari-House in Ottobrunn and hall in Witten
- 2013: Landestheater Linz (BlackBox Musiktheater Volksgarten), director: Andy Hallwaxx (with Daniela Dett and Rob Pelzer )
- 2014: Revised version, Germany tour of the ensemble Loge 5 - Die Theater Company , director: Dietmar Horcicka (with Julia Baukus and Sascha Littig )
- 2015: Theater Lüneburg , director: Friedrich von Mansberg (with Anna Müllerleile and MacKenzie Gallinger)
- 2016: Theater Hof , director: Karsten Jesgarz, musical direction: Franz Tröger (with Cornelia Löhr and Thilo Andersson)
List of songs
- Opening
- Me and my body
- But. Nice.
- Like the ticking of a clock
- last minute panic
- Father mother Child
- The strange woman in my bed
- Without me
- I slept very badly last night
- Inheritance
- greeting
- Deer on the prowl
- Little secrets
- Not enough
- As a couple
Press reviews
“Often very funny, on the one hand because of the lively dialogues and the cheerful, cheeky jazz rhythms of piano, bass and clarinet. On the other hand, because of the two actors who stumble from one dangerous 'project phase' to the next with perfect timing and without fear of embarrassment between their orange-colored cushions - and still sing very well. " (Eva Kalwa, Der Tagesspiegel, July 14, 2008 )
“The jubilation is great. (...) Peter Lund, who wrote dialogues and lyrics for Baby Talk, the little musical as a big hit, is as serious as he is joking for his two heroes. That ignites, jumps on the enthusiastic audience and swings on the go by Thomas Zaufke. " (TwoTickets.de, March 23, 2013)
"In their children's war musical, Peter Lund and Thomas Zaufke manage a virtuoso balancing act between tabloid comedy and relationship drama, between chamber play and show number" (New Mitmachzeitung from April 11, 2012)
"Baby Talk is a piece that really gets under your skin" (Edelgard Bach, Kulturgemeinde Witten, March 24, 2013)
Web links
- Press kit of the Neukölln Opera for the musical Baby Talk , (PDF; 152 kB)
- Review of the musical Baby Talk in Hagen
Individual evidence
- ^ Berliner Kurier, May 4, 2000
- ↑ Press kit from Frank Serr Showservice Int. (Accessed: March 23, 2013)
- ↑ Carmen Böker, Berliner Zeitung of May 4, 2000
- ↑ Press information from the Neuköllner Oper 2000 (accessed: March 24, 2013) ( Memento from December 7, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Press kit of the Neuköllner Oper 2008 ( accessed : March 23, 2013) ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 152 kB)
- ↑ http://www.theater-hof.de/musiktheater/detail/baby-talk/
- ↑ Review by Eva Kalwa, Der Tagesspiegel, July 14, 2008
- ↑ Description of the piece from TwoTickets.de, March 23, 2013
- ↑ Review in the Neue Mitmachzeitung on April 11, 2012
- ↑ "Baby Talk" on Sunday in the Saalbau ( memento from April 12, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
