Homo Empathicus

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Scene from the production at the Deutsches Theater in Göttingen (season 2014/15)

Homo Empathicus is a play by the German playwright Rebekka Kricheldorf . The world premiere took place on October 3, 2014 at the Deutsches Theater in Göttingen . Thematically, the piece deals with the design of a utopian society, the focus of which is the increased ability to empathize .

content

In Homo Empathicus an interlocking social system unfolds, which is in the tradition of utopian or dystopian literature. Using various interconnected episodes, life in a world without social differences or obvious hierarchies is illuminated.

The depicted image of man stands in opposition to the economic model of the Homo oeconomicus , who strives for power and utility maximization . In the piece, everyone is equal as such and is fundamentally valued for their uniqueness. The division of citizens into male and female has been broken up and replaced by the term “das Mensch”. The characters' linguistic behavior is gender-neutral, dominated by euphemisms and free of discrimination . Negative is thus reinterpreted positively and cleared of potentially bad, because in this apparently ideal society there is harmony and consideration.

According to the title of the piece, the residents are primarily controlled by their empathy and strive to create a collective sense of well-being. Everyone deserves equal respect and appreciation. There are no different social evaluations between professions, since everyone is of equal importance in their contribution to the community. In this way, people of all professional and age groups form a harmonious society that is free from status differences. In the world of Homo Empathicus, the "student", the "path-speaking", the "hygiene specialist", the "lecturer", the "actor" and many others live together and successfully practice mutual understanding for one another. In this sense, the social system has mechanisms for self-regulation. Before conflicts can break out, they are resolved communicatively as they arise and someone who “speaks the way” removes them from the world. Even death is not considered a threat, but is seen as a benefit to the community. The Political Correctness is thus driven into Homo Empathicus to the extreme and is a parody presented a conflict-free society on the stage.

One of the few problems that is already nipped in the bud is the break-in of two “savages” into the structure. These behave in the manner of “real people” in the 21st century. Drinking, smoking and with freely exhibited sexuality, two characters with the names Adam and Eve appear and challenge the prevailing empathy and idyll. However, before the confrontation results in the removal of the intruders, the performance is revealed as a play in the play and the harmony returns. With this insert, the piece gains a self-reflective, poetological level that offers the viewer an opportunity to interpret the relationship between art and reality.

text

Rebekka Kricheldorf: Homo Empathicus. Complete impression of the piece. In: Theater heute , year 56, issue 1, 2015, supplement, ISSN  0040-5507 , pp. 1–11.

Translations:

(Ital), Rebekka Kricheldorf: Homo Empathicus, translated and introduced by Massimo Salgaro, Cuepress 2017, ISBN 978-88-99737-57-3 .

Performances

Homo Empathicus was first performed on October 3, 2014 under the direction of Erich Sidler , director of the Deutsches Theater Göttingen since 2014 . The entire ensemble of the theater was involved in the premiere, so that at the start of the 2014/2015 season, all 26 actors - some newly engaged, some long-established - were on stage together. The exact fit of actors and roles is no coincidence, as the play was specially written by the author Kricheldorf in consultation with the director and artistic director Sidler.

In 2018 the play was performed under the direction of Angelika Andrzejewski and the actor Bastian Heidenreich at the Junge DNT (Young Talent Association of the German National Theater Weimar ) with teenagers and young adults.

Reviews

The reviews of the first performance of the piece were very positive. The Göttingen production attracted attention in the local as well as in the national press and in the specialist magazine Theater heute .

“In purely practical terms, this experiment on earth sounds like a student overdose in Prenzlauer Berg under the mild sun of a Göttingen autumn day, which mainly consists of university staff of all ages and genders in pedestrianized street cafes. Rebekka Kricheldorf touched up exquisitely poisoned cotton candy for this. "

- Franz Wille

There was praise in particular for the acting performance of the ensemble and for the programmatic kick-off by Sidler's artistic director. Homo Empathicus is among the best pieces of 2014 at Spiegel Online . The staging was also mentioned as a recommendation in the print edition of the magazine.

backgrounds

Homo Empathicus is the fourth world premiere of a Kricheldorf play by Erich Sidler. After directing work in Stuttgart (2014), Zurich (2006) and Bern (2011), Homo Empathicus forms another cooperation between the two. Thematically, the drama fits into the author's oeuvre, as she often uses parodic forms of representation in her texts.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Homo Empathicus. Deutsches Theater Göttingen, accessed on January 10, 2015.
  2. ↑ a b Rashid Ben Dhiab: Man-made Eden. ( Memento of the original from January 11, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Litlog, accessed January 10, 2015. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.litlog.de
  3. ↑ a b A. Dürr, T. Becker, W. Höbel: Theater hits 2014: The best new pieces of the year. On: Spiegel Online of December 29, 2014, accessed on January 10, 2015.
  4. ^ A b Peter Krüger-Lenz: "Homo Empathicus" by Kricheldorf in the Deutsches Theater. In: Göttinger Tageblatt , October 5, 2014, accessed on January 10, 2015.
  5. ↑ a b c d e Jan Fischer: Purgatory of Euphemisms. On: nachtkritik.de of October 3, 2014, accessed on January 10, 2015.
  6. ↑ Massimo Salgaro: Homo Empathicus. Le aberrazioni dell'empatia . In: Massimo Salgaro (ed.): Homo Empathicus . Cuepress, Modena 2017, ISBN 978-88-99737-57-3 , pp. 6-34 .
  7. ↑ Homo empathicus - Cue Press. Retrieved February 4, 2018 (it-IT).
  8. ↑ Franz Wille: In the flower garden. Spy tragedies, verbal polluters and new people: World premieres by Nino Harati wili, Theresia Walser and Rebekka Kricheldorf in Berlin, Mannheim and Göttingen. In: Theater Today . Volume 56, Issue 1, 2015, ISSN  0040-5507 , p. 33.
  9. ↑ KulturSPIEGEL 1/2015, p. 19.