It is the story of an involuntary homecoming. Franz Josef Murau, who has avoided his family for decades and lives abroad, has to travel to the funeral of his parents, who died in an accident. This brings him back to a past he thought he had left far behind. What follows for Murau is a furious battle with the hated legacy: he goes “into the forest of childhood” to “erase everything” that binds him to his family in “a horrific confrontation” with the horrors of that time. He is particularly tormented by his parents’ involvement in the Nazi regime and the continuing effect of the Catholic National Socialist mentality even after the end of the war. Murau desperately tries to tear the roots of the past out of his life, thoughts and feelings.
Image above: Bernd Moss, Julia Windischbauer, Photo: Monika Rittershaus
Auslöschung. Ein Zerfall was published in 1986 as Thomas Bernhard’s last prose work and is a monumental reckoning with home, family and society in the post-war period. Karin Henkel and her ensemble will follow the deeply sad abysses, the absurd comedy and the disturbing clairvoyance of this family portrait and link it with related voices from other works by Thomas Bernhard.
With: Bernd Moss, Linn Reusse, Anja Schneider, Almut Zilcher, Manfred Zapatka, Daniel Zillmann
Direction: Karin Henkel
Stage: Thilo Reuther
Costumes: Teresa Vergho
Music: Lars Wittershagen
Dramaturgy: Rita Thiele, Juliane Koepp
WHEN?
Premiere: Saturday, 6 June 2022, 7:00 pm
05.06.2022 – 7:30 pm, 26.06.2022 – 7:30 pm, 03.07.2022 – 7:00 pm
WHERE?
Deutsches Theater
Schumannstraße 13a
10117 Berlin-Mitte
