In the deep valley of the death claw
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| Title: | In the deep valley of the death claw |
| Original language: | German |
| Author: | Boris von Brauchitsch |
| Publishing year: | 2014 |
| Premiere: | May 22, 2014 |
| Place of premiere: | Kassel State Theater |
| Place and time of the action: | Kassel, 2027 |
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In the deep valley of the death claw is a play in 3 acts by Boris von Brauchitsch from 2014.
action
First act: the preparations for documenta 16 are in full swing. The exhibition in 2027 is curated by an inseparable pair of twins, the siblings Natalia and Ben Grimmberger, who share the conviction that art can fundamentally not move anything socio-politically. Supported by the “press power” Tutti Schnorr and the gray eminence, the documenta managing director Linus Gollinger, they are looking for a symbolic work for the large-scale exhibition. In addition, they actually want to do without artists, as they too often tend to disrupt curatorial concepts. Only Tutti Schnorr's son, Sebastian Castro, is accepted as a real creator. All other artists of the documenta are inventions of the documenta team.
As luck would have it, Linus Gollinger reads in the morning newspaper under Miscellaneous that an idiosyncratic archaeological find is currently being auctioned at Sotheby's: a large blue stone egg, found during excavations in Allopachstan. The curators send Sebastian Castro to be auctioned in London. The successful auction of the egg is secretly filmed by him as a performance and presented to the public as the documenta's first video work.
Second act: when the egg is set up in Kassel, a storm of indignation breaks out. Protests on the part of Sotheby's - because of the illegal recording - and on the part of the government of Allopakhstan - because of archaeological research that has been carried out in the meantime, which recognized the missing crowning of the Allopachian national shrine in the egg.
The egg becomes a political issue. The British government stands in front of its "national shrine" Sotheby's and subordinates - supported by the tabloid press - to the German secret service methods. Meanwhile, Allopachstan is sending terrorists to Kassel to blow up the documenta site and steal the egg.
Third act: Arian Ansary, the only one of the terrorists who was not caught in the search, falls in love with Natalia, while Sebastian Castro gets involved with Ben. The egg is returned, the documenta site is not blown up. A diplomatic solution is also found with England: From now on the documenta will take place in Liverpool. But Germany had to commit to extraditing Natalia to Allopachstan and Ben to Great Britain. A show trial is to be made there. But you manage to escape at the last minute.
Finally, Linus Gollinger and Tutti Schnorr take over the last Kassel documenta as curators. In the finale, everyone sings the Goodbye Kassel song together.
criticism
The German stage wrote about the world premiere on May 22, 2014: “'In the deep valley of the death claw' sounds a lot like René Pollesch , but it is entirely by Brauchitsch - and in the production by Patrick Schlösser , who is acting as head of theater in Kassel Goodbye, a small scoop at the scene. Even if the construction is slightly hybrid. "
The Frankfurter Rundschau (features section of May 23, 2014) recognized a mixture of “simple gags” and “intelligent allusions”: “For large parts more cabaret than theater, the piece wants to tell the story of the Documenta and make fun of the empty words and pomposity of the art world, exposing the show as a marketing and media event. And almost incidentally, it also offers an unrestrained abstruse plot that culminates in the farewell to the Documenta from Kassel "."
Web links
- In the deep valley of the death claw on the website of the Kassel State Theater