Odyssey
after Homer
A production of the Rottstr 5 Theater

With
Tobias Amoriello/Lukas Vogelsang
Tim-Fabian Hoffmann
Lea Kallmeier
Maximilian Pulst/Thomas Kaschel

Directed by
Daniel Kunze

Assistance
Rebecca Jooß, Stanislav Otremba

photos
Sabine Michalak

production
Hans Dreher, Oliver Paolo Thomas

Duration: approx. 80 minutes

The journey of Odysseus, which has long since become proverbial, tells of the long odyssey of the king
of the king who wants to sail home from Troy. He wanders the sea for almost twenty years.
As the flotsam of fate and the victim of divine disagreements, Odysseus is swept from one adventure to the next. Homer tells of the odyssey of life in grand, mythological images. A parable of not arriving and trying as the ultimate goal.
Thus, this hero and his crew pass through the deepest human fantasies, they taste the fruit that makes them forget all their worries, are transformed into animals
transformed into animals, encounter the dead in Hades and cry out in thunderous storms against the arbitrariness of the gods.
And in doing so, they question the senseless and painful quest of man, which is his life.

There, in the underworld, Odysseus and his companions meet all kinds of legendary figures as well as Sisyphus - whose eternal task is to roll the same stone up a mountain again and again. And he is still doing it when Odysseus sets off on his final journey, as the audience learns. Being a hero becomes the work of Sisyphus. The audience acknowledges the powerful evening with frenetic applause. Quite rightly so.

WAZ

Odysseus and his companions are portrayed less as courageous heroes and more as an over-excited group of chaos, stumbling from one adventure to the next, ending up in the Cyclops' cave and on the island of the witch Kirke (Lea Kallmeier). The pathetic heroic epic becomes an adventure comedy in the style of a self-deprecating superhero comic. It's entertaining, makes for laughs and has a quality all of its own as a smashing of highly cultural idols. But director Kunze achieves more than that. His performance poses the question: what exactly is a hero?

WAZ

"Zeus has shown me the promised land, but won't give me access to it," complains the hero. The sound of the sea booms, the applicant has earth thrown in his face. It seems ungodly, but as we all know, Frontex has also taken on the dirty job of keeping these wanderers away from us. The distorted image of what is probably the most influential Western poetry sheds light on our present is almost mercilessly exposed to absurdity on this evening.

BSZ Bochum

Director Daniel Kunze continues the collaboration between Rottstr5 and the Folkwang directing course with this stage adaptation of the well-known ancient material. Together with young'n'rotten, the youth ensemble of the off-theater, directing students are given the opportunity to stage performances under professional conditions.
The result is more than convincing. The odyssey is deconstructed on stage as an absurd laughing stock: cheeky, silly, existential. Daniel Kunze brings the original text of modernism to the stage as a slapstick act. Today, the Odyssey only has a place as a parody of the present. This makes for laughter and deserved applause. And yet it is more bitter than any tragedy.

BSZ Bochum