Burgtheater new

“Johann Holtrop”: hellish dance of greed & megalomania

Melanie Kretschmann at the center of a great ensemble(Bild: Burgtheater / © Tommy Hetzel)

Austrian premiere: Stefan Bachmann brings his highly topical dramatization of Rainald Goetz's prose text "Johann Holtrop" to the Burg with great actresses from Cologne.  

He was what Benko would have liked to be - namely a newspaper czar - and then what Benko actually was: namely a department store juggler, even with a fatal focus on Karstadt. The only difference is that the truth began to catch up with German manager Thomas Middelhoff as early as 2009, when he was sent to prison. The new Burg director is now benefiting from this parallelism: Stefan Bachmann brought his production of the key novel "Johann Holtrop" from Cologne at the best possible time.

Rainald Goetz's virtuoso, highly rhythmic prose text is furiously composed and choreographed with the help of a chamber ensemble. Anti-capitalist grimaces in the Brechtian sense rage on stage, but Bachmann also gives the fabulous ensemble - all female and newly engaged - human moments. A hellish dance of language and acting rages around the title heroine Melanie Kretschmann.