The Spanish fly is a beetle which once enjoyed great popularity among men in the form of potency-booster and aphrodisiac substance obtained from crunching the beetle. The same-named farce by Arnold & Bach definitely has nothing to do with all that. Arnold and Bach met in Berlin at the beginning of last century and joined forces. Together they produced comedies and farces for the theatre, Arnold wrote the plays, Bach staged and directed them. The Spanish Fly kicked-off their tremendously successful artistic collaboration when it premiered in 1913. One hundred years later, the Spanish fly is back merrily buzzing around Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, and this time the director is none other than Herbert Fritsch. Boasting two invitations to the renowned festival “Theatertreffen” 2011 (Ibsen’s Nora and Hauptmann’s Beaver Fur), Fritsch returns as a critically acclaimed director to his former place of artistic activity, the Volksbühne, where he worked as an actor from the beginning of the nineties until 2007. Herbert Fritsch loves comedies but refuses the (political or societal) discursivity and relevance usually called for in theatrical plays. Instead, his endeavours to break fresh ground for narrativity on stage make full use of the actors’ bodies, the sound of the stage ambience, the comic potential of pulling faces, making gaffes and other subconscious betrayals of bourgeois tension. This comedy of mistaken identities centring around the Berlin mustard merchant Klinke rings in the end of the repertory season at Volksbühne. It will be shown throughout until theatre-season holidays.
Duration: 2h 10min
With: Wolfram Koch (Ludwig Klinke), Sophie Rois (Emma Klinke, seine Frau), Mandy Rudski (Paula Klinke, Tochter), Hans Schenker (Eduard Burwig, Bundestagsabgeordneter), Inka Löwendorf (Wally Burwig, Tochter), Werner Eng (Alois Wimmer, Emmas Schwager), Christoph Letkowski (Dr. Fritz Gerlach, Rechtsanwalt), Harald Warmbrunn (Anton Tiedemeier), Stefan Staudinger (Gottlieb Meisel, Stadtrat), ChrisTine Urspruch (Mathilde Meisel, seine Frau), Bastian Reiber (Heinrich Meisel, Sohn) and Betty Freudenberg (Marie, Haushälterin)
Director: Herbert Fritsch
Stage Designer: Herbert Fritsch
Costumes: Victoria Behr
Music: Ingo Günther
Light Design: Torsten König
Sound: Erwin Stache
Dramaturgy: Sabrina Zwach
