“I’m just blue”—Der Regisseur Andreas Kriegenburg und seine Auseinandersetzung mit den Texten der Dramatikerin Dea Loher

Abstract

The article describes the working relationship between the theater director Andreas Kriegenburg and the playwright Dea Loher from their fi rst co-operation in 1995 to the current day. It also serves as an introduction to central aspects of Loher’s and Kriegenburg’s aesthestics. Kriegenburg’s fi rst interpretation of a play by Loher—“Fremdes Haus” in 1995—set the tone of their co-operation. He treated her work like he would have treated a classic—with respect but without exaggerated reverence. Although some critics saw a lack of faithfulness to the original text in his approach, Dea Loher felt that she could trust Kriegenburg to direct the fi rst performances of other works as well, such as Adam Geist and Olgas Raum. Later co-operations on Magazin des Glücks (2001), Unschuld (2003), Das Leben auf der Praça Roosevelt (2004) and Quixote Material (2005) showed a defi ning principle in their relationship—mutual overtaxation or simply expecting too much of each other. For the experiment of Magazin des Glücks Loher sent a text to Kriegenburg every six weeks (!) that he would put on stage within three weeks, while she was supposed to respond to his production with a new text. They ended up with a set of seven very diverse texts and productions. But overtaxation also refers to Loher’s increasingly non-dramatic, monologic and improbable dramas. Das Leben auf der Praça Roosevelt—based on Loher’s experience in Sao Paulo—works with monologic authentic stories from Latin America. Like most of her new plays it asks the basic question of how they can be put on stage at all. (MB; in German)