Dieter Roth

Murmel Murmel

Photo: Thomas Aurin

Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz Berlin (DE)

Première: 28. 3. 2012, Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz Berlin (D)
Running time 1 hour and 20 minutes. One interval.

Director and stage designer Herbert Fritsch
Costume designer Victoria Behr
Composer Ingo Günther
Lighting designer Torsten König
Dramaturg Sabrina Zwach

Cast
Florian Anderer
Matthias Buss
Werner Eng
Ingo Günther
Jonas Hien
Simon Jensen
Wolfram Koch
Annika Meier
Anne Ratte-Polle
Bastian Reiber
Stefan Staudinger

Axel WandtkeIt was in 1974 that Dieter Roth wrote and self-published an unusual book by the title Murmel. The book, which is actually a play, has 178 pages filled with a single word – Murmel. Murmel Murmel Murmel Murmel Murmel Murmel Murmel Murmel Murmel Murmel Murmel Murmel Murmel Murmel Murmel Murmel Murmel Murmel Murmel Murmel Murmel Murmel Murmel Murmel Murmel Murmel Murmel Murmel Murmel Murmel Murmel Murmel Murmel Murmel Murmel Murmel Murmel Murmel Murmel Murmel. Director Herbert Fritsch chose eleven actors who whisper (murmeln = Ger. whispering), utter, say, sing and shout the word Murmel throughout the entire performance. Eleven, because eleven is an unusual, incomprehensible number, impossible to present and count with ten fingers, adds Fritsch.
An extraordinary performance in every sense for a playful launching of the 49th Maribor Theatre Festival – poetic, absurd, inquiring, contradictory, straightforward.