More than 20 years ago the legendary band Pankow took the rock fairy tale Hans im Glück, adapted from the Grimm brothers, to the stage. Little Hans gives away the pay for his apprenticeship, a lump of gold, and by abjuring any form of possession, discovers a bit of freedom. In Pankow’s version, in his imagination little Hans acts out different ways of life until the bitter end. As a model student, equipped with his golden capital, knowledge and ambition, Hans starts into life, but ends up in psychotherapy, which eliminates his subversive energies and turns him to a well-functioning citizen – Hänschen Mittelmaß, the mediocre Hans. Later he transforms into a woman-eating business man. A couple of criminal embezzlements get Hans into prison, which he changes for the quite life of a family father, which he then turns in for the life of a grumbling alcoholic: “Always with your ass along the wall!”
With their biographical experiments, Pankow illuminate the search for fairytale-like freedom and a life beyond socially codified roles. The feeling of crisis which accompanies this, is formulated across all points of the compass and time axes: “All fucked up! Whether north, east, south or west! Terror everywhere! And mental pest!” The rock extravaganza in its Berlin-specific actuality is helped by the Volksbühne to its revival, in a symbiosis never seen before: Pankow are rocking, Lothar Trolle is writing, the ensemble of the Volksbühne is playing live at the PRATER of the Volksbühne!
With: Pankow, Andreas Frakowiak, Ana Kavalis, Michael Klobe, Inka Löwendorf, Matthias Rheinheimer and Berliner Spätlese
Scenic Arrangement: Andreas Merz
Supervision: Frank Castorf
Stage design: Edwin Bustamante
Costume design: Ulrike Köhler, Teresa Tober
Light design: Hans-Hermann Schulze
Dramaturgy: Sebastian Kaiser
With: Pankow, Andreas Frakowiak, Ana Kavalis, Michael Klobe, Inka Löwendorf, Matthias Rheinheimer and Berliner Spätlese
Director: Andreas Merz
Art Direction: Frank Castorf
Stage Designer: Edwin Bustamante
Costumes: Ulrike Köhler, Teresa Tober
Light Design: Hans-Hermann Schulze
