Endsieg

In the organizer's words:

by Elfriede Jelinek
Directed by Falk Richter

"Because all of this is about us."

The crisis of democracy runs deep. Perplexity is spreading. This makes a text that Elfriede Jelinek published on her website barely two weeks after Donald Trump's renewed election victory in the USA all the more important: "Endsieg", a gloomy sequel to "Am Königsweg", her play about the US election eight years ago.

Here, too, she uses the power of intelligence to dismantle the populist rhetoric of the "new old king" and counteracts the battle cries of the right-wing rioters with what she herself calls a "poem". While in the earlier piece there was still a palpable sense of bewilderment that someone like Trump could actually win the election, the current balance is alarming. The triumph of the new right is resounding: in "Endsieg", those left behind from "Am Königsweg" become the "people", an unleashed crowd who love and admire their leader precisely because of his violent, anti-human and anti-democratic intentions. Jelinek depicts the almost cult-like worship of the "new old king" as a divinely chosen savior with malicious mockery. She also takes aim at the overpowering shadows behind the king, his political and economic rope teams. The view of attempts to oppose this movement is completely sobering: "I say there is nothing left, there is nothing else, the other no longer exists, there is nothing to look at, only the One still exists," the blind seer states, describing the fatal disintegration of all opposition.

"Endsieg" is a political-poetic "epilogue" to the hour that belongs on a stage immediately. Falk Richter, who premiered "Am Königsweg" seven years ago in an award-winning production at the SchauSpielHaus, and his ensemble have accepted this challenge and are presenting an initial sketch of Elfriede Jelinek's text on the main stage of the SchauSpielHaus barely four weeks after the US election. Not a normal production, but a scenic approach, to be understood as an immediate political-artistic action

With: Mehmet Ateşçi, Sandra Gerling, Josefine Israel, Christoph Jöde, Mirco Kreibich, Julia Wieninger and Frank Willens

Director: Falk Richter
Stage and costume design: Nina Wetzel
Music: Matthias Grübel
Video: Sébastien Dupouey and Michel Auder
Lighting: Annette ter Meulen
Dramaturgy: Rita Thiele

Further information: Endsieg | Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg