Stückemarkt III

A run-down hotel in a small town in a war zone, far from the capital city. A young man equipped with only a rucksack and a camera. At home he has followed media reports of a “military intervention” in a faraway land where German soldiers and local police have shot civilians including children at a roadside checkpoint. He decides to go there and investigate the background to the story.

In the hotel lobby the self-appointed reporter meets a middle aged gin-drinking medic who works somewhere out there in a refugee home. Apart from them there is only the hotel porter and his almost adult daughter. As the play’s title ‘foreign angst’ suggests, the characters make themselves understood in a mixture of German and broken English. The porter also speaks to his daughter in the local language.

In the linguistic confusion of these four stranded people a nightmare develops out of misunderstandings and unclearly formulated intentions. This thriller set in a foreign country could also be called ‘german angst’ because it much of it takes place in the protagonist’s head. A tricky stomach bug keeps him in bed, his equipment is stolen and he hears gunfire in the distance – he becomes further and further removed from his actual mission. At the end of his fear-fuelled nightmare he barricades himself in his hotel room with the Kalashnikov – for which he has exchanged all his money – at his side.

Iris Laufenberg

Konradin Kunze was born in Freiburg in 1977, studied acting at the School of Music and Theatre in Hanover and is a graduate of the European Animation Masterclass at the International Academy of Media and Arts, Halle. He has acted in over 40 productions in Freiburg, Hanover, Bremen and Hamburg. As a playwright he has featured in the following plays, some of which he has also directed himself: ‘Playback Life’ (2003), ‘Days different … nights too’ (2005, both together with Klaus Schumacher), ‘Paradise Now’ (2008, world premiere Junges Schauspielhaus Hamburg), ‘foreign angst’ (2010) and ‘A Small, Small World’ (2011, together with Sophia Stepf, world premiere Goethe-Institut Dhaka, Bangladesch). Other directing credits include ‘NippleJesus’ (2006) and ‘Bombel’ (world premiere 2009, Theater Plauen-Zwickau); he is currently directing ‘The Thirsty Ones’ by Wajdi Mouawad, which will premiere in April at Theater Bremen. From 2008 to 2010 he wrote and directed a number of film shorts, which were presented at various festivals. Konradin Kunze currently lives in Berlin and India.

Cast

Scenic Arrangement Friederike Heller
Dramaturgy Marion Hirte
Stage and Costume Design Kathrin Frosch
Read by Mohamed Achour, Stefan Konarske, Seyneb Saleh und Almut Zilcher
Percussion Sebastian Vogel