Music Theater Linz

Ferdinand von Schirach: Of love and guilt

Lawyer, author: Ferdinand von Schirach(Bild: Peter Rigaud, Shotview)

Crime, guilt, punishment and forgiveness are the powerful themes in the literature of Berlin lawyer and criminal defense attorney Ferdinand von Schirach. He himself is currently on tour with his monologue "Regen" and performed in the packed auditorium of the Linz Musiktheater.

Wearing an evening suit and bow tie, Ferdinand von Schirach took to the huge stage in Linz's Musiktheater. One would have wished for a more intimate setting, but then where to put the many listeners? As it was, he struggled to fill the large stage, which was only equipped with a table and chair.

However, he demonstrated an astonishing presence in the monologue "Regen", a chamber piece focusing on an unsuccessful author and "rejected juror". Of course, lawyer von Schirach is not entirely without law. In a bar, his alter ego muses on stage about the meaning of life, love and guilt.

Ferdinand von Schirach on stage(Bild: Andre Kowalski)

Entertaining stroll through thoughts
"No one can absolve themselves of their own guilt" is one of the key sentences of this eccentric educated citizen. He is sometimes disgruntled, sometimes cynical, and his thoughts sometimes wander back to antiquity, sometimes to world literature and even to genetic manipulation.

He is preoccupied with ambivalence. There is sometimes a hackneyed attitude that everything was better, nicer and easier in the past.

Sideswipes at the smoking ban
But Ferdinand von Schirach is also entertaining and proves his improvisational skills with an Austria special on the smoking ban and mental side-steps into the German parliamentary election campaign. His sentence is amusing: "It's only beautiful outside from inside."

Conclusion: Von Schirach is always worth reading/listening to. The evening was rewarded with rapturous applause.