Wer kocht, schiesst nicht

In the organizer's words:

A satire by Michael Herl. With Ilja Kamphues

A production of the Stalburg Theater in collaboration with Hessischer Rundfunk

World premiere September 26, 2002 at the Stalburg Theater

Even after more than 650 performances, "Wer kocht, schießt nicht" by Michael Herl, cult author and former co-host of the Late Lounge on HR television, trained journalist and once a restaurant critic in California on behalf of a renowned publishing house, is still a perennial favorite in our repertoire. Herl has now sent the unfortunate molecular biologist Dr. Theodor Kögel (played by Ilja Kamphues) out into the world. Dr. Kögel, the son of an innkeeper from the Sauerland region and a gifted amateur chef, is in a deep life crisis. No job, no wife, no parental home - and now the employment office has sent him to Schnell & Lecker to introduce himself. Schnell & Lecker of all companies, a manufacturer of fast food and convenience products!

Kögel has no choice but to go there. His task: to demonstrate to a "selected test audience" how laborious and unhealthy conventional cooking is - and how convenient, nutritious and time-saving it all is with the products from Schnell & Lecker. Kögel holds his own at first - but soon his demonstration gets out of hand and unintentionally turns into an absurdly realistic lecture on the abstruse nature of modern food intake, on Italian restaurateurs and their pepper mills, on pressed chickens in America and formation-flying pineapples in Wanne-Eickel - and not only that. While he conjures up a deliciously stuffed chicken leg with homemade fettuccine in front of the astonished audience, while pleasant aromas waft through the theater hall, Dr. Kögel glides and glides and glides...

"Wer kocht, schießt nicht" - a must for gourmets and gourmands, for amateur chefs and professional chefs, for delicatessen traders and delicatessen buyers, for butchers and vegetarians - and for everyone with a sense of good food and wicked humor. A merciless reckoning with everything to do with fast food, convenience products and cooking without time and leisure - and at the same time a sensitive and sarcastic description of the madness surrounding cooking, eating, drinking, thinking, acting and being in modern times. Dr. Kögel's conclusion: you can overdo it - in both directions. Or, to put it more philosophically:

Where do we come from, where are we going - and which wine goes best with it?

Duration approx. 110 minutes incl. intermission.

An in-house production of the Stalburg Theater

Price information:

Discounted tickets for 8 euros for students, pupils, trainees, FSJ and BFD volunteers and Frankfurt Pass holders at the Box Office (subject to availability).