Karl Valentin

Many of his most famous sketches were created during the Nazi dictatorship. Although he managed throughout his life not to allow himself to be politically appropriated, Valentin was by no means a resistance fighter and openly admitted that he would have joined the NSDAP if more pressure had been exerted on him. He was far too afraid to openly refuse. Karl Valentin was also afraid of all sorts of things in his private life: crowds, financial ruin, artistic failure and every conceivable illness. Against this background, the comedy of his work can be read as a strategy to counter the fear that was omnipresent for him.

This is where Ulrike Arnold, director of the successful productions of “Der Zerrissene” and “Minna von Barnhelm”, and her artistic team come in. She creates a highly comic evening that defies the horrors of a threatening world with a great delight in abysmal comedy and absurd humor. The scenes by Karl Valentin and Liesl Karlstadt are complemented by texts by her contemporary Daniil Charms, whose work draws on Valentin and Karlstadt’s absurd observations of everyday life and tells of a grotesque world that is as funny as it is dangerous. Entitled “I know no fear, unless I get scared”, the result is a ludicrous collage in which one scene follows the next. Ulrike Arnold picks up on the unmistakable humor of Karl Valentin and Liesl Karlstadt, but develops her own characters together with the seven-member ensemble, whose hardships and hopes become tangible in the threatening world in which they find themselves. Following the principle of collage, set designer Franziska Bornkamm and costume designer Anna Lechner have created surreal visual worlds in which everyday life becomes a ghost train.

Duration: 1 hour 40 minutes, no break