Fabian oder Der Gang vor die Hunde

In the organizer's words:

by Erich Kästner
Director: Dušan David Pařízek

Berlin. Weimar Republic. End of the 1920s. Erich Kästner writes a metropolitan novel with autobiographical features. He warns of the abyss that Germany, and thus Europe, is approaching. "Today, new, or more precisely, very old powers are already fanatically spreading standardized opinions again. Many still don't know, many no longer know, that people can and should form their own opinions." On the surface, nothing happens in this novel, but behind the scenes, the drama is at its maximum. It is the drama of an ordinary life at a time of impending catastrophe.

"Apart from a job paying two hundred and seventy marks a month, nothing is lost. No wallet, no pearl necklace, no memory, or anything else that is lost at the beginning of stories and found again in the last chapter, to everyone's satisfaction. Nothing is recovered. Important people appear and disappear before time. Unimportant people appear and return again and again with a vehemence that they don't deserve. A young man shoots himself. Another young man drowns. And both deaths are so outwardly unjustified, both gentlemen are killed so accidentally, that one could ask: Were there no more compelling reasons? Why did the author deny the necessity of their deaths? One could almost assume it was intentional. The stupidity of what happens takes on impressive proportions as the pace of events accelerates. For those who experience it, every day is a journey on the wrong train to the wrong destination. Reason goes into exile. The confused state and the perplexed person remain." (Erich Kästner)

Erich Kästner was there when his books went up in flames in 1933. In "Fabian oder Der Gang vor die Hunde", he described the humus from which such events could grow.

The actors are: Henning Hartmann, Christoph Jöde, Markus John, Mirco Kreibich, Emma Oberpichler

Director and stage: Dušan David Pařízek
Costumes: Magdaléna Vrábová
Music: Peter Fasching
Lighting: Rebekka Dahnke
Dramaturgy: Judith Gerstenberg

Further information: Fabian oder Der Gang vor die Hunde | Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg