Die Wörter sind böse

“Storytellers go on, the car industry goes on, the workers go on, governments go on, rock’n’roll singers go on, prices go on, paper goes on, animals and trees go on, day and night go on, the moon rises, the sun rises, eyes open, doors open, one’s mouth opens, one speaks.” Rolf Dieter Brinkmann! The enfant terrible of the West German literary scene, who was run over from the right when he was looking left. What starts as a reflection on his own life soon turns into the furious rambling of a young man through the streets of Cologne: the mustiness of post-war West Germany in his sights and armed with a tape recorder. His constant companion is his own unconventional poetic spirit. In overflowing cascades of hatred Brinkmann captures the awfulness of the world, the city and the street with a diabolical laugh – in its edgy beauty. DIE WÖRTER SIND BÖSE (“Words Are Evil”) is the title of a WDR radio drama from 1974, written, voiced and edited by Brinkmann himself. The director and stage designer Wolfgang Menardi puts this breathless march through 1970s Cologne on stage, enhanced with poems from Brinkmann’s oeuvre. A merciless view of the city of Cologne, filled with humour and well-hidden beauty in between the concrete blocks and tiled floors.