Theater at the station

The clowns meet at Europe’s fridge

Great theater: Rupert Lehofer and Monika Klengel.

(Bild: Johannes Gellner)

How close is the great Europe to our own homeland? The Theater im Bahnhof in Graz explores this question in its Europe trilogy. The first part - "Blind Date Ost" - is currently on show.

Is it possible to have a blind date with an entire continent? The Theater im Bahnhof has tried it and has superimposed the map of the Graz lines over a map of Europe. The location closest to the home of the respective ensemble member in this overlay became the destination for a research trip. Now the actors are back and report on their blind dates with Europe.

Clowns on Europe's fridge
Juliette Eröd, Lorenz Kabas, Monika Klengel and Rupert Lehofer made their way to the East: they visited a steam-punk museum in Cluj, Romania, met a chaotic art dealer in Ostrava, Czech Republic, became passionate about the legacy of avant-garde pioneer Jerzy Grotowski in Wroclaw, Poland, and stood in front of Soviet ideologies cast in concrete in Kaunas, Lithuania.

Lorenz Kabas with Helmut Köpping (at the piano) and Juliette Eröd.

(Bild: Johannes Gellner)

The actors have returned from their travels visibly changed - namely as clowns, who now share a fridge on stage in which the delicious souvenirs from their trip are waiting to be eaten. But who is entitled to how much of it?

Sounding out the status quo of Europe
It quickly becomes clear that this is more than just a simple travelogue. It is about exploring the status quo of Europe, and in this first part, above all, about the Holocaust as a historical tragedy that made the founding of a community such as the EU possible in the first place.

Monika Klengel

(Bild: Johannes Gellner)

And ultimately it is also about the fact that it is an almost impossible circus piece to tell Europe as a whole, as a story. Anyone who tries must almost inevitably degenerate into a clown who has nothing new to say, but only performs the old hits in playback.

This first evening of the Europa trilogy (developed by the actors with Heike Barnard and Helmut Köpping) skillfully overlaps bitter comedy with essayistic tragedy - on show until April 20. "Blind Date Mitte" premieres on April 26 and "Blind Date West" on May 10.