Little man, now what?

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Little man, now what? is a revue by Tankred Dorst based on the novel by Hans Fallada , which premiered on September 22, 1972 under the direction of Peter Zadek in the Schauspielhaus Bochum .

Satirical revue theater

Dorst left the locations of Ducherow and Berlin, the plot from 1931/1932 and the characters involved, shortened the text to a playable theater piece and loosened it up with singing and ballet. When Lämmchen and Pinneberg dream of the big wide world, Dorst even lets a character from Hans Albers appear. In the revue inserts, humor is persisted as a cheerful look down on a wretched fate. Pinneberg and Lammchen are poor people. When Pinneberg repeatedly becomes unemployed, the small family is dependent on unemployment benefits. Dorst also caricatures the time shortly before 1933. Once the show girls appear as BDM girls. Nothing is swept under the carpet: neither the Jewish bosses of Pinneberg, nor the Jewess Frau Nothnagel, who, like Lammchen, struggles for their daily bread, nor the energetically marching SA . Sometimes the audience rubs their eyes. While Lammchen is giving birth to Murkel in the Moabit hospital , Pinneberg visits an association for nude culture .

Pinneberg is disappointed with Lammchen. He'd actually imagined her to be gentler. Lammchen does not accept Pinneberg's wishful thinking in this regard. She is just the way she is. Lammchen had become like that. She had to go into business and be there for the family since she finished school.

Notable appearances on Dorst's revue stage also have minor characters. There is Marie's dream of Willy Fritsch . Marie is the ugly but capable marriageable daughter of Pinneberg's boss Kleinholz. When the potential future groom Pinneberg, married , can no longer hide his marital status from Marie Kleinholz, he threatens Marie with a blow on the "shame" during the escalating battle of words. Because nobody should speak ill of Lammchen. In spite of her undisguised aggression, Marie turns out to be a thoroughly lovable young lady when she sings:

"Innocence doesn't spread, do
you have Willy Fritsch in the house."

With this experienced heartbreaker Willy Fritsch, she fears for her precious virginity:

"Why is Willy Fritsch so beautiful,
I don't dare to go to bed anymore."

Political satire

Dorst targets unemployment at that time. In an open-hearted monologue, Pinneberg admits to the members of parliament that Lammchen sympathizes with the communists .

When the young couple's ongoing social downturn reached its lowest point - camping in a Berlin gazebo - Lammchen resigned: “We are now in misfortune”, but the piece ends in apotheosis . Lammchen and Pinneberg remain a couple. “It's the old love. Higher and higher, from the stained earth to the stars. "

filming

literature

  • Tankred Dorst and Peter Zadek: Hans Fallada, Little Man - what now? A revue . Illustrated. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1972, 200 pages, first edition

Used edition

  • Little man, now what? Revue based on the novel by Hans Fallada. Pp. 159-261 in Tankred Dorst. Political plays. Work edition 4 (content: Toller . Sand . Little man, what now? Ice Age . Goncourt or The Abolition of Death ) Suhrkamp Verlag 1987 (1st edition), without ISBN, 432 pages.

Secondary literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Günther Erken in Arnold, p. 86, left column, center
  2. ↑ Edition used, p. 205: Four stage photos of the world premiere by Roswitha Hecke
  3. ↑ Edition used, p. 184, 10. Zvo
  4. ↑ Edition used, p. 184, 15. Zvo
  5. ↑ Edition used, p. 257, 5th Zvu
  6. ↑ Edition used, p. 261, 15. Zvo
  7. ^ TV film 1973