Caution, this performance may contain traces of Seneca
Full dollhouse: “Phaedra” at the Cologne theater
Source: Birgit Hupfeld
“Phaedra” is one of the really great things in theater history, but at the Cologne theater you can’t tell by looking at her – sorry: him. Ersan Mondtag prefers to stage a wild comic grotesque with coke, artificial excrement and bell pranks.
Kclassics are still on the schedule. But often it is not the old pieces, but overwritings. Texts from past centuries come from past centuries. They do not correspond to today’s gender images, contain words that could be understood as racist or sexist and so on.
On the other hand, the titles are well known and still attract viewers. That’s why the overwriting is booming, authors are telling the stories anew. Like now Thomas Jonigk at the Cologne Theater with “Phaedra”. Warning: The performance may contain traces of Seneca and Racine.
Jonigk’s thesis: The characters already know about their tragic end. But you can’t get out of the plot, which is constantly being retold. It used to be called fate. That sounds interesting, you could tell the story as a thriller. Similar to the film “The Truman Show”, strangers could be pulling the strings, the characters become aware of this and begin a fight for freedom. However, Jonigk turns his idea into a theatrical satire on himself. Phaedra asks if she would be as good as Bibiana Beglau, Jutta Lampe or Edith Clever. And whether anyone studied applied theater studies in Gießen.
Benny Claessens versus Ersan Mondtag
Benny Claessens plays Phaedra, often almost half-naked, in a body-tight belly and breast suit. The Belgian actor is known and notorious for acting on multiple levels. He hints at his roles, comments on them ironically, responds to the audience, jumps back and is immediately somewhere else. A one-man theater of discourse and a radical self-promoter whose unrestrained vanity can be quite productive. Maybe “Phaedra” would be an interesting solo show for him.
Now the director and stage designer Ersan Mondtag comes into play. He creates total works of art from large images and music, loves trash and hates psychological subtleties. Texts play more of a supporting role in his productions. Jonigk’s “Phaedra” transports Mondtag to an American comic world. The stage depicts a suburban street with three doll houses belonging to different strata of society.
Phaedra – in the original queen – is a Proletentussi, a queer Al Bundy blend. With her friend – in the original Amme – Peggy – in the original Oenone – she sniffs coke like crazy. The two drink, gibble, gossip in rough street language and annoy their fellow human beings with ringtones and fake phone calls. Of course they got that way because they have to live in this ghastly world created by evil, power-crazed men. The macho men are also allowed to say a few mean, misogynistic phrases during the course of the evening.
All deaf, fast all till
During the long absence of her husband Theseus, Phaedra has fun with a body builder who wears only gold panties. She loves Hippolytos, the son of Theseus, who lives next door and is also gender-swapped with Yvon Jansen. Like everyone else on stage, she plays an exaggerated cliché to the max.
The Cologne ensemble is technically virtuosic, for almost two and a half hours without a break it bombards the audience with a wild grotesque in the style of “King Ubu” and leaves nothing out. From artificial crouching to soft porn-esque intercourse scenes. A Pipikackafickifarz noise.
Feelings are scarce. When Phaedra confesses her love to Hippolytos, there’s a sort of hint in Benny Claessens’ face that there’s something real lurking inside him. Likewise at the end, when Phaedra mows everyone down like a killer from an American B-movie of the eighties and only spares the neighbor named Chronik (Margot Gödrös). But killing doesn’t hurt, it’s all just for fun, theater that wants nothing and says nothing. All stupid, almost all dead. Out of the mouse, we’re going home.
Further performance dates on November 27, December 1, 4, 10 and 21, 2022 at the Schauspiel Köln Depot 1.