The last commune

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Data
Original title: The last commune
Genus: Play with music
Original language: German
Author: Peter Lund
Music: Thomas Zaufke
Premiere: 21st September 2013
Place of premiere: Berlin, GRIPS Theater
Place and time of the action: Berlin , today
people
  • Friedrich Puhlmann
  • Heidi, his daughter
  • Georg, his son-in-law
  • Philipp, his grandson
  • Hannes Majowski
  • Michael, his son
  • Charlotte, his granddaughter
  • Arthur Funcke, called Atze
  • Josephine Bouvier

The last commune is a play by Peter Lund (text) with music by Thomas Zaufke , which was specially written for the GRIPS Theater , which follows up on this through themed evenings, discussions with the actors and materials in a theater-pedagogical manner, about the “intergenerational relationship when older people live together and younger ” .

content

Location of the premiere: The Grips-Theater at the Hansaplatz underground station in Berlin

Drama in the Puhlmann household: Grandpa Friedrich burned down his kitchen - almost! At 78 years old, he has to go to a home? Nothing there, Grandpa Friedrich cannot be fetched from his old apartment. It was not for nothing that the gnarled Revolte winner hoarded his nest egg in the six-figure amount in the ice cream can. With this money he starts one last big adventure and founds another commune with his old friend, the brave proletarian metalworker Hannes Majowski, who falls from his chair when he has forgotten his pills again. Like back then, only completely different, but then Lotte, Hannes' granddaughter, who wrote a seminar paper about Commune 1, takes the stage. With a bicycle helmet, rucksack and a terrifying energy, she invades the flat share and with the ambition to avoid historical mistakes in this “social experiment” . And then there is Philipp, Friedrich's grandson, who has a bit of a crush on Lotte. All are united by the longing for a life in community on the one hand and a self-determined life on the other, but with every new roommate the danger for the success of this project and the tension curve of the piece increases.

Lotte annoys everyone with her community order and organic food - and with her political phrases. The grandfathers, who tend to complain about the depoliticization and egoism of their descendants, get a fair punishment with Lotte, as it were, because she knocks them out for what was once their own demands, on which a large part of the enjoyment of the play is based. More and more people want to be there: Motz salesman Atze, who lives on the fringes of society, and also Josi, who is young at heart, but at the beginning of dementia , and also daughter Heidi and son-in-law Georg - who entered through the earlier behavior of the 68ers "Lack of family in the traditional sense" had to experience - develop noticeably interest in the illustrious municipality.

reception

The piece explores the question of what is possible in a world of individualization and single apartments that make up over 80% of households in Berlin alone. It shows society on a small scale, the intergenerational relationship when older and younger people live together and the limits of personal possibilities and ideas when living together. When describing new generation relationships and the search for new forms of living together, there is plenty of room for the topics of love in old age , illness, hope and the right to a first or second chance. Three generations face each other on stage:

  1. The student movement of the 1960s, which at that time made private living space a field of discussion about alternative ways of life, but whose supporters are getting on in years, and for whom the common housekeeping and financing, the achievement of consensus when making decisions, ecologically sustainable Criteria for lifestyle and nutrition, as well as living in communal ownership, no longer seem to be as easy to follow as at a young age. Today they are often better off financially than they would have expected when they were young, and they have made a difference politically, but privately they have failed and reflect: “In every old sack there is a young sack who wonders what to do with it happened to him. "
  2. Young people who are about to graduate from school and often already have ideas for living after their family, but for whom money is scarce, which means that a shared apartment often appears to be the only alternative.
  3. In between there is the “sandwich generation”, to whom the example of their parents was not really helpful, who could never decide for themselves whether they wanted to live in a shared apartment, who were helpless when it comes to raising their own children and who thus became a reconstruction of conservative structures . You find yourself again "between pensioner mountain and unruly son / between first wife and obstinate child / we stumble through life like a labyrinth." (1st act, 6th scene)

premiere

The first performance of the piece took place on September 21, 2013 in the GRIPS-Theater, Berlin. Directed by Franziska Steiof.

Ensemble of the first season (GRIPS-Cast)

occupation

  • Director: Franziska Steiof
  • Choreography: Clébio Oliveira
  • Musical rehearsal: Bettina Koch
  • Dramaturgy: Henrik Adler
  • Theater education: Julia Gaßner
  • Stage: Jan A. Schroeder
  • Costumes: Sibylle Meyer

orchestra

  • Martin Fonfara (drums)
  • Johannes Gehlmann (guitar)
  • Robert Neumann (keyboard)
  • Thomas Keller (saxophone)
  • Carsten Schmelzer (bass)

actor

  • Christian Giese (Hannes Majowski)
  • Jumin Hoffmann (Philipp Paul)
  • Dietrich Lehmann (Friedrich Puhlmann)
  • Regina Lemnitz (Josephine Bouvier)
  • Jens Mondalski (Michael)
  • Maria Perlick (Charlotte)
  • Kilian Ponert (Atze)
  • René Schubert (Georg)
  • Regine Seidler (Heidi)

Songs (selection)

  • Sandwich generation

Press reviews

  • "A piece with a potential hit, with a passionate ensemble, a lively band playing music and a real gain in knowledge." (Eva Förster, Märkische Oderzeitung, 23 September 2013)
  • "Entertainingly funny, especially touching in the moments when the new roommate Josi, who ran away from a nursing home, is struggling with the loss of her memory, well timed in the alternation of dialogue, dance and song." (Katrin Bettina Müller, taz from 23 . September 2013)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Materials on "The Last Commune" - A play with music by Peter Lund and Thomas Zaufke, GRIPS-Theater, September 21, 2013
  2. ↑ Materials on "The Last Commune" - A play with music by Peter Lund and Thomas Zaufke, GRIPS-Theater, September 21, 2013
  3. ↑ Materials on "The Last Commune" - A play with music by Peter Lund and Thomas Zaufke, GRIPS-Theater, September 21, 2013
  4. ↑ Anja Röhl: The last commune in the brain - Review (September 24, 2013)
  5. ↑ Materials on “The Last Commune” - A play with music by Peter Lund and Thomas Zaufke, GRIPS-Theater, September 21, 2013
  6. ↑ Anja Röhl: The last commune in the brain - Review (September 24, 2013)

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