Lars Eidinger transforms Bertolt Brecht's "Hauspostille" into a wild stage ritual and fascinates the audience.
When Lars Eidinger reads and sings Brecht's "Hauspostille", literature turns into a radical live experience. The Berlin actor, photographer and DJ brings the early collection of poems to the stage as a mixture of sermon, concert and performance - accompanied by musician Hans Jörn Brandenburg on piano, harpsichord, harmonium and keyboard.
Bertolt Brecht was born in Augsburg in 1898 and developed early on into an idiosyncratic author between poetry, theater and political thought. In 1933, he fled from the National Socialists and also traveled via Zurich on his way into exile, which became an important transit point for a short time. The "Hauspostille" was first published in 1927 and is considered a key early work: a hymnal, often bitter look at morality, power and human weaknesses.
Eidinger, a formative figure at the Berlin Schaubühne for many years, became known far beyond Germany with roles such as "Hamlet", "Richard III" and the "Tatort" antagonist Kai Korthals. In "Hauspostille", his desire to push the boundaries meets Brecht's early poetry about violence, greed and human abysses. The texts are raw, unembellished, often disturbing - and therefore ideally suited to Eidinger's direct stage style.
On stage, Eidinger alternates between whispering, chanting and eruptive outbursts. Brandenburg accompanies him with a soundscape that ranges from choral to chanson to harsh chords. The result is an evening in which poems become songs, sermons become sound experiments and Brecht's world tips over into an intense now. A rare format that combines Eidinger's radical style and Brecht's early impact.