✭✭✭✭✩<b>
</b><b>by Ödön von Horváth, directed by Andreas Dresen
Deutsches Theater
May 27, June 6, 7, 11, 14, 18, 24 & 25, 2007
</b>
There are myriad other plays considered classics in Germanophone countries that are seldom or never staged elsewhere. One such play is “Kasimir und Karoline” by Ödön von Horváth playing at the Deutsches Theater. The works of Horváth (1901-38), born in the part of Austria-Hungary now called Croatia, underwent a major reassessment in the 1960s and became viewed as forerunners of developments in modern German drama, particularly in his sociopolitical themes and in his use of naturalistic language. “Kasimir und Karoline” from 1932 tells a fairly simply tale. The title couple, engaged to be married, break up during Oktoberfest in Munich and find other partners who are, in fact, better suited to them. The play might seem to be a comedy except that the bitterness of the couple’s breakup dominates and grotesquerie of the setting suggests that human relationships are more characterized by pain than happiness. “Träume sind Schäume” (“Dreams are froth”), says Kasimir.
The production has been a major hit for the Deutsches Theater because it unites director Andreas Dresen of the acclaimed film “Sommer vorm Balkon” (2005) with its star Inka Friedrich (Karoline). That might attract people to the theater who have seen the film, but for those who haven’t, like me, the attraction was an edgy, thought-provoking production of a play with a mood far ahead of its time. At the centre of Matthias Fischer-Dieskau’s set is a huge pole, like the centre-post of a tent, which also supports an oversized teeter-totter that can rotate around the pole. Its first use is as a rollercoaster. Karoline, who is unable to persuade Kasimir, in a foul mood because has just lost his job, takes a ride with Schürzinger, a much more convivial man. They teeter up and down and are swung around in a circle giving a very clever onstage facsimile of such a ride. But the teeter-totter not only embodies the cheap thrill that Horváth seems to think flirtation is but serves as a kind of scales on which various characters are weighed against each other during the course of the action. The brilliant set gives the play a sense of dynamism it might not otherwise have. So, too, does the live music of a group called 17 Hippies, whose physical numbers and folksy music help create an atmosphere of celebration, the time period updated from the 1930s to the ‘70s.
Sven Lehmann plays Kasimir with such vitriol right from the beginning it’s hard to see how Karoline ever persuaded him to go to the fair. The other performances, however, all hit exactly the right note. Inka Friedrich is like a child at Oktoberfest delighted by all its tawdry attractions and by the zeppelin overhead. It’s clear she needs a guide in this topsy-turvy place, which is exactly what Thorsten Merten as the calm, philosophical Schürzinger provides, though even he can’t protect her from the superficial allure of two rich leering gentlemen effectively played by Christian Grashof (as Rauch) and Michael Gerber (as Speer). Horváth contrasts the relation of the title couple with the actively abusive relationship of a petty criminal Der Merkl Franz (Mark Waschke) and his girlfriend Erna (Katharina Schmalenberg), who stoically endures his increasing cruel taunts culminating in his dousing her with a full stein of beer. Horváth parallels the characters’ relationships with those among the members of a freak show.
“Kasimir und Karoline” uses simple means to evoke a remarkably complex response. It’s a play that should certainly be better known outside Germanophone countries. Horváth’s atmosphere of menace created through everyday language and use of frequent pauses looks forward to Harold Pinter and Franz Xaver Kroetz. The Deutsches Theater is on its summer break now, but “Kasimir und Karoline” will return to the repertoire for the 2007-08 season. Be sure to see it. For more information see <a href="http://www.deutschestheater.de">www.deutschestheater.de</a>.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: A version of this review appeared in TheatreWorld (UK) 2007-07-28.
Photo: Scene from <i>Kasimir und Karoline</i>. ©2006 Mathias Fischer-Dieskau.
<b>2007-07-28</b>
<b>Berlin, GER: </b><b>Kasimir und Karoline</b>