CREATIVE TEAM

Author Valery Pecheykin

Set and costumes by Maria Tregubova

Composer Vladimir Rannev

Video Oleg Mikhailov

Lighting designer Damian Chmielarz

Choreographer Dina Khuseyn

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CAST

Marie Derkum Sophie Arbeiter

Hans Schnier Christoph Bornmüller

Leo Schnier, Herr Fredebeul Rocco Brück

Mutter Schnier Johanna Eiworth

Henriette Schnier Lorena Handschin (Schauspielstudio)

Vater Schnier, der Alte Boris Koneczny

Heribert Züpfner, Herr Kinkel, Kostert Robin Krakowski

Frau Fredebeul, Bela Brosen, Monika Silvs Viktoria Miknevich

Vater Derkum, Prälat Sommerwild, Zohnerer Patrick Schnicke

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He is a failed rebel, this Hans Schnier, who, as a touring clown, puts himself on the sidelines. Half convinced, half defiant, he leads his nomadic existence in German hotel rooms - preferring that to being the son of an industrialist and having his children raised Catholic, as his great love Marie wanted. Schnier is someone who only seems to tolerate happiness as an outsider.

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Heinrich Böll is one of the most important intellectuals of the post-war period. “Views of a Clown”, his reckoning with the conservative, Christian-dominated Federal Republic of Germany in the 1950s, became an international success. Böll still enjoys particular popularity in Russia, where the Orthodox Church is still closely linked to the state. For the Russian director Maxim Didenko, it is above all the clown's view of reality that makes Böll's view of the world so unique. From the art form of clowning, which is both anarchic and truthful, he develops a new performative language between tragedy and comedy. “Views of a Clown” is his first directorial work in Germany.

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In his night review, Harald Raab wrote: "Böll's story about the real forced society of the Federal Republic in the Adenauer years comes across in Mannheim as a clownish caricature. The characters act in pantomime, with puppet-like mechanical, sometimes even dance-like movements, stereotypically exaggerated characters, lemurs of social mendacity. They are all under the discipline of the Catholic Church, in a system of bourgeois decency ordered from above, which is intended to make people forget their fairly active role in Nazi barbarism. The clown's mother (Johanna Eiworth), who sacrificed her daughter for the leader, the people and the fatherland, is particularly bold. She is now messing around as president of the Society for the Reconciliation of Racial Differences.

 

The use of video and lighting (Oleg Mykhaylov and Damian Chmielarz) plays a key role in the fascination of this novel adaptation. The entire scenes are covered by dramatic sequences of images. Color patterns outline the action. Photos of HJ marches turn red like blood. One video sequence is particularly oppressive. The clown shoots his pests in an imagined orgy of lustful killing. He films his victims with a handheld camera as they collapse dying."