Törleß

In the organizer's words:

Törleß
after Robert Musil
In a version by Akbar Paktin
A Young`n`Rotten production

With
Johanna Basten
Rebecca Bednarzyk
Lilli Grix
Carmelina Kißel

Directed by
Akbar Paktin

Assistance
Rebecca Jooß, Hermine Fiedler, Liam Engelke

trailer
Siegersbusch Film Wuppertal

photos
Jonas Domrath

production
Oliver Paolo Thomas, Alexander Ritter

Duration: approx. 75 minutes

#PLAY DESCRIPTION
At a boarding school, Törleß witnesses a theft: Basini has stolen money from his classmates out of financial necessity. But instead of reporting this crime, the pupils decide to make Basini their slave and abuse him as an experimental subject. Unnoticed by the teachers, a parallel world full of secrets develops between the pupils. And as Basini's psychological and physical humiliations increase, Törleß, who initially only observes, becomes more and more involved in the events and takes part in this sadistic game. He is simultaneously repulsed by the increasingly perfidious physical and sexual humiliations and fascinated by the power he is able to exert over weaker people.

Robert Musil's debut novel from 1906 tells of the adolescent testing of mechanisms of violence, the pleasurable discovery of the self and the exploration of intellectual, aesthetic and moral learning and sadistic instincts. As if in a germ cell, the later development towards fascism is already foreshadowed.

#[PRESS REVIEWS]

With this 75-minute production, which is exciting not least due to the spatial atmosphere in the railroad arches, the Rottstr5 Theater has set an exclamation mark in the round of Bochum's season openers - and once again made the Schauspielhaus look thematically quite old.
(Hello Herne)

Robert Musil's 1906 novel "The Confusions of Törleß" reveals how normal people suddenly and quite naturally do cruel things without their (own) world collapsing.
(Hello Herne)

He made a conscious decision to stage his adaptation, set in the present day, with an all-female ensemble. A strong choice, as the novel is set in a boys' boarding school in the Habsburg era before the First World War.
(Hello Herne)

At a time when Musil's novel has become alarmingly topical again, (...) Akbar Paktin has staged his own adaptation of "Törleß" at Bochum's Rottstr5-Theater, which focuses entirely on the behavior of young people. (...) Young people played by very committed, empathetic young women.
(Hello Herne)

Price information:

Price info to B.O. Tickets can be reserved by phone (between 12.00 and 18.00), via Whatsapp, Telegram, email or Facebook message. Email: karten@rottstr.de 0163 - 761 50 71 Reserved tickets must be collected on the day of the performance between 7.00 pm and 7.20 pm, otherwise the reservation expires and the tickets go back on sale. Reserved tickets cannot be sent to you and can only be paid for at the Box Office. Only cash payment is possible on site 17 € - normal price incl. program booklet & 1 free drink 10 € - reduced* incl. program booklet