The Bregenz Theater Kosmos started the new year on Thursday evening with the world premiere of Florentina Hofbauer’s play “Limbus”. Hubert Dragaschnig designed an encounter between two women that started out strong, but then went rather calmly. The audience was consistently satisfied with the performance and gave praise and applause for the two actors and the set by Caro Stark.
The start is dramatic: Nelly Kröger-Mann (Nicola Trub) takes the stage and Swetlana Allilujewa (Johanna Tomek) immediately takes up a weapon and points it at the person opposite. She watches the young visitor suspiciously. A dialogue ensues full of retrospectives and insights into the lives of the two women: Kröger-Mann, who fled Hitler’s fascist Germany at the side of Heinrich Mann, and Allilujewa, who, as the daughter of Josef Stalin, was part of a deadly regime. Neither woman can shake off the experience, are caught in it and find no salvation. You are in “limbus”, in limbo.
Kröger-Mann and Allilujewa have had adventurous and hard years behind them, but when one reports from a plush armchair in the production of Dragaschnig and the other with the knitting in hand, things get a little too comfortable over time. The narrative loses its strength. It’s a shame, because the music by Herwig Hammerl and the equipment by Caro Stark would have provided a wonderful setting and much more space for the plot to unfold. The stage design has an inclined playing surface and a diffuse reflective, also inclined, floating ceiling. The stage space seems a bit cramped. Individual lamps, which are switched off one following the other during the course of the piece, represent the many lives that have been lived and passed.
Florentina Hofbauer’s idea for a piece would have had more potential, the text can’t quite meet expectations and the story gets caught up in the red and plush ambience. After a good 60 minutes, the audience was nevertheless reasonably satisfied with the premiere. The author was missed at the final applause. Theater maker Augustin Jagg regretfully announced that she might not be there at the world premiere, following all, she had already come from California twice in vain due to postponements caused by the pandemic. The production is still on the program until February 5th.
(SERVICE – “Limbus” by Florentina Hofbauer. Director: Hubert Dragaschnig. Light: Stefan Pfeistlinger; Music: Herwig Hammerl; Set design: Caro Stark. With: Johanna Tomek and Nicola Trub. Further performances: 15th, 21st, 22nd, January 23, 28, 29 and 30, as well as February 4 and 5, each time at 8 p.m. in the Theater Kosmos. Tickets and further information at https://theaterkosmos.at)
(BILDAVISO – press images are available for download at https://theaterkosmos.at/kosmos/presseservice.)