Not only did the old stars of the stage add a pathetic, banal and grotesque tinge to life at the VILLA VERDI, but they brought misery and loneliness as well. The residents’ memories of their heydays as stage performers are the Villa’s greatest treasure. The faded stars are still clinging to their obsessions without any trace of temporal or emotional discontinuity. Some keep pretending to have recorded an album just a couple of years ago, yet the truth is - it is more than forty years since they last were in a studio. They delude themselves into believing that they are much younger than they really are. Their suitcases are packed, they are ready for the next tour - yet most of them haven’t left the Villa in decades. Their work has been completed – what follows now? They are trying to prolong their artistic career into infinity to dispel any thoughts about death. Scheming and digging are the order of the day just like back then, in a constant attempt to make themselves feel unique and exceptional, just like back in those days. The patina of the glamorous past barely conceals the misery of the residents’ actual pauperization. With the withdrawal of financial benefits imminent, the Villa itself seems in danger. Residents and carers concoct a plan to put politicians to shame by that which makes men and women of genius immortal: their art. To secure their own survival, the residents of the VILLA VERDI set out to organise a gala show for the politicians. It is an oddly hilarious, sad, poetic and political cosmos of elderly artists and poverty in old age.
With: Hildegard Alex (Johanna Edel), Sarah Behrendt (Nora Melrose), Annekathrin Bürger (Ebba Kühn), Cornelia Kempers (Anni Schmidt), Jochen Kowalski (Max Wallstein), Roland Renner (Antonio Ristuccio), Ilse Ritter (Maria Janson), Andreas Seifert (Karl Grün), Jutta Vulpius (Katerina Skolonski), Harald Warmbrunn (Hans Borowski), Osvaldo Ventriglia (Tänzer), Yoshiko Waki (Tänzerin), Frank Maus (Musikdirektor Kurt Leider), Sandor Farkas (1. Geige), Karl-Heinz Brößling (2. Geige), Erhard Starke (Bratsche), Daniel Roither (Cello), Studenten der Staatlichen Ballettschule Berlin and 30 Bewohner der Villa Verdi
Director: Johann Kresnik
Art Direction: Christoph Klimke
Music: Walter Haupt
Stage Designer: Marion Eisele
Costumes: Erika Landertinger
Art Direction: Joachim Rathke
Light Design: Torsten König
Dramaturgy: Sabine Zielke
