Rabatz!

Where does language end and the “rabatz” begin? Wherever the notorious Herbert Fritsch appears, all theatrical conventions go flying out of the window. In addition to his proven talent for directing comedies, in recent years he has developed an entirely original theatrical language: one that goes beyond words and beyond meaning. He regularly puts texts on stage that were never intended to be there and whose words turn into music (such as “Murmel Murmel”). In 1916 when the Dada café Cabaret Voltaire was opened in Zurich and Dadaism was invented, someone remarked: “It’s a collection of young people who are creative and want to cause a rabatz.” Ha! Dadaism is exactly what Herbert Fritsch does. And so is causing a rabatz. A ruckus, an echoing thunderclap of irrationality, a hurricane of art going uninhibitedly berserk. The German word “rabatzen” has now gone out of use, it used to mean “beat”, “hit”, “rampage”, “frolic” or “rut” – and all of these can be taken as stage directions for the ensemble. Herbert Fritsch loves the stage, the theatre and the people who love it. 13 years after his last production in Cologne – Brecht’s “Puntila and His Servant Matti” as “a feast of unleashed acting” (Deutschlandradio) – he is back. Fully in keeping with the tradition of Dada, he embarks on a search for the unspeakable, the immaterial, for release from language, which might actually provide redemption.