Platz Mangel

“Platz Mangel” is unmistakably a work by Marthaler, and as always time itself weighs heavily on the characters. The very weight of life forces them onto or into bed, and sometimes even under it. The characters lie there in white bath robes and large sunglasses; they are the feudal patients in the Dr. Dr. Bläsis Sanatorium, studying various ridiculous insurance options, listening to treatises on God and spirituality, trying to win a losing battle against fat – and all the time they know that heaven is no more than a dream. The songs are more beautiful and artistic than ever, taking in everything from Schubert and Mahler to Brigitte Bardot to the repeated “You can win if you want” by Modern Talking, before finally coming to Bach’s St. John Passion (“to Golgatha!”). Marthaler is his old self, and yet also a little more contemplative than previously. The body, illness, and death are the obsessive ghostly concerns in this dystopian clinic. This performance by the marvellous “Marthaler family” is deeply moving and lingers in the memory.