BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ

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by Alfred Döblin in a stage version by Hermann Schmidt-Rahmer

Life! That's what Franz Biberkopf wants. Free but disoriented, he staggers through a metropolis that devours him. He slips into sexual adventures, petty crime and becomes toxicly dependent on the diabolical thug Reinhold. The web of violence and power struggles not only costs him his arm: his lover, the prostitute Mieze, is also murdered. In his important urban novel BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ, Alfred Döblin throws Biberkopf onto the seething pavement of 1920s Berlin. Using expressive language and montages ranging from advertising slogans to biblical quotations, Döblin finds a literary equivalent for the increasingly complex world of the time. The excessive demands of a society in the midst of upheaval and constant sensory overload become tangible. With a large ensemble, director Hermann Schmidt-Rahmer uses poetic and magnificent images to explore what happens when we lack the tools to put the pieces of our perception puzzle together in a meaningful way. What questionable world views and actions can arise from this? And how can unscrupulousness, bondage and violence be legitimized in the face of one's own self? Biberkopf, drunk on megalomania, self-pity and the glitter of the city, defies every misfortune with a flippant pose - until death opens his eyes.