Werner Schneider was the 1967 Hessian youth champion in shorthand typing. He is a retired registrar with a weakness for Richard Wagner who lives in the peaceful hamlet of Alsbach-Hähnlein, a small village on the Hessian Bergstraße, where he is the head of the local typing association. And he can do something that nobody learns anymore: he can write down spoken words as they are being spoken. In this staging of the Tagesschau news bulletin, he once again writes for the audience against the clock: writing the production’s script by typing out the news live, which is displayed to the performers via a teleprompter. The ‘Tages-Show’ also begins at 8pm, recording the news at the same time as the programme. The mixing of theatre, performance, dance, video and electronic music creates a hybrid form of musical theatre that is guided aesthetically by the question of the relationship between community and identity – because nearly the whole nation comes together for the Tagesschau ritual. Every day, the Tagesschau creates a community out of almost 10 million fans sitting in front of their television sets by informing them of faraway lands, but also giving them a feeling of home. It therefore assumes the ancient role of the theatre as a site of gathering. Flanked by the stock exchange and the weather – our modern gods – it appears as a narrative of human aspiration and action. The content of each performance is unique. It also shows film recordings that document the production of the Tagesschau, interlaced with images from Werner Schneider’s life in his Hessian idyll who – as it turns out – already crossed paths with public broadcasting media once before…
Konzept und Regie: Jan Philipp Stange, Musik: Charlotte Simon, Benjamin Bascom, Jonathan Penca, Dramaturgie: Heiko Stubenrauch, Video: Jakob Engel, Bühne: Josephine Hans, Nils Wildegans, Produktion: Julia Straßer, Performance: Daniel Degeest, Transkription: Werner Schneider, Tanz: Gal Fefferman, Orla McCarthy, Narae Shin, Astrid Smits | Fotos von Irina Ximena Perez Berrio u.a.
Eine Produktion von Jan Philipp Stange, mit freundlicher Unterstützung von studioNAXOS und der Hessischen Theaterakademie.
Uraufführungen am 26. und 28. November 2015 in der Naxoshalle Frankfurt. Weitere Aufführungen am 1. und 2. April 2016 im Rahmenprogramm des Lichter-Festivals International, am 10. Juni 2016 beim Körber-Studio “Junge Regie” im Thalia Theater in Hamburg (Shortlist) und am 2. Mai 2017 beim Festival „Radikal Jung“ am Volkstheater in München