Der Zauderberg

People are suffering from a mysterious disease: sleeplessness, irrational anxieties, exhaustion and loss of control over their impulses. When they also start to become invisible, it’s clear that professional help is required. But big pharma is late. So far there is no reliable treatment for this pandemic in sheep’s clothing. However, in the sanatorium high up on the Zauderberg (an Alpine resort dubbed “Procrastination Peak”, reminiscent of Thomas Mann’s “Magic Mountain”) there are signs of some initial success. Medical Director Dr. Hui is convinced: by using rubbing (to skip the gaps between neural contacts), the process by which parts of the body are vapourised can be slowed down and possibly even reversed. Her dedicated care workers use firm bandages to fight for their patients’ visibility. Seminars in the gymnastics of ambivalence and radical dreaming are starting to show an effect. In their new festoon of texts, PeterLicht and SE Struck dispatch a wild horde off into an existential battle for visibility on the verge of a new era. Director Bastian Reiber presents this frenzied rubbing on the Schauspielhaus stage. And returns mouths to the faces of characters who were in danger of disappearing into their own echo. Following GENESIS and ¿QUÉ PASA EN LA MANCHA?, DER ZAUDERBERG is the third of Reiber’s works to be seen at Schauspiel Köln.