Die Zeit schlägt dich tot

“An electrifying gospel evening, which is literally about everything.” This statement fits Fabian Hinrichs, the Berlin actor who has achieved fame for his tumultuous evenings at the Volksbühne with René Pollesch. In “Die Zeit schlägt dich tot”, he has emerged as a conceptionist, director and actor. On the main stage of the Berliner Festspiele, he delivers a never-ending monologue, an evening filled with song, and a musical tale. The stage is an enormous space in which the actor is abandoned. The challenge is to fill it with physical and vocal power. The risk of failure is part of this challenge and human fragility can be felt, no matter how much furore is taking place. In a mixture of rock ‘n’ roll and post-punk, the musical tale is accompanied by thrashing electric guitars playing music by Jakob Ilja from Element of Crime and his three-man band. “Die Zeit schlägt dich tot” addresses the existential questions that you ask yourself at the age of 15 and to which you return, aged 40: love, life, fulfilment and desperation. “Life isn’t complicated, just absolutely terrible.” Let’s crack on with it.