Asche

"For me, the main appeal of theater lies in being able to magnify subjective truths. That these truths play the main role and not rational equivalence. Making theater is like sharing dreams." Jette Steckel

In 2009, Jette Steckel staged an adaptation of Ilija Trojanow's novel "Die Welt ist groß und Rettung lauert überall" at Gaußstraße - even before she last staged "Der Fremde" by Camus there in 2011, which was performed 70 times. An old poster with this title still hangs in an aisle there. Now in-house director Jette Steckel, who has always staged plays for the big stage at the Thalia in recent years, is returning to Gaußstraße once again. In her luggage for the first time is a play by Elfriede Jelinek, whose texts have repeatedly found their way onto the various stages of the Thalia in a wide variety of directorial styles.

Jelinek's most recent work "Asche" is a deeply personal text about the loss of a beloved companion, about grief and inconsolability, about the feeling of being lost to the world when one person is no longer there, "lost into nothingness". And what happens when we also lose the world, our planet? It all started so beautifully with creation. The beauty of nature! And suddenly it's so cruel. "What evil guests we were! Never did we rest, never did we rest!". The earth is already crumbling and the edges are trampled down. There is no parallel earth in sight to hop over to.

Elfriede Jelinek's writing is, as she herself says, a passionate act, a kind of rage. "I see the director handing me a piece of paper: 'All ashes. I already saw that coming. I'll go on, I'd even go on in the desert, in the sea too, but not for long, with my swimming skills."

In cooperation with Zartinka Circus, a circus project by Z*ART e.V.

Premiere January 12, 2025, Thalia Gauss