Nebenan

A Theater Thriller by Daniel Kehlmann

A well-known film actor, whose career is seemingly unstoppable and whose personal life also seems to be going perfectly, meets a neighbor he doesn’t know at the corner bar in the building where he has bought a loft, shortly before an important audition in London that is set to accelerate his international career. The neighbor begins to provoke him with a steady stream of new details about his private life. How does he know all this? He can’t possibly know all that just because he lives across the courtyard.

He turns out to be an employee of a credit card company who can piece together an exact picture of his customers’ lives from their account transactions. Every time the actor heads for a taxi, the man reveals a new detail: about his wife’s infidelity, about very private internet browsing habits, about new film projects that are in danger of failing. And the neighbor also has a very strong opinion about the film roles the actor has played.
Suddenly, the actor sees his entire life laid out before him. And slowly he realizes that this is part of a sophisticated revenge plot by someone who sees himself as a victim of gentrification and a loser of the German reunification. And it seems to be working, beginning to completely disrupt the life of the supposed winner.

Following “Heilig Abend,” Daniel Kehlmann has once again succeeded in creating a genuine—and, in the clash of these two seemingly incompatible worlds, also very funny—theatrical thriller with strong dialogue and a surprising plot.

With Oliver Mommsen and Stephan Grossmann, two of the acclaimed stars of the production of “Das perfekte Geheimnis” share the stage. This promises not only suspense but also a lot of fun.