Review - Saarbrücken is Look(ing) back in Anger?

Rage and Resignation

                                         



It’s the huge red neon sign in capital letters clues everyone in on the theme – ZORN. Polyglot and multicultural, rage and anger are delivered in Saarbrucken at the Alte Feuerwache together with the newspapers, falling down onto the stage from a conveyer belt. A steady influx of bad news is dropped into the daily lives of Jimmy (Andreas Anke), Cliff (Robert Prinzler) and Alison (Dorothea Lata) who, between plastic furniture and freshly ironed laundry, are trying to enjoy their Sunday afternoon – or merely passing time. Like the lab-rats in their cages Cliff and Jimmy are stuck by their inability to deal with social and societal changes, while they condemn the bourgeois traditionalists they also condemn themselves to inertia and monotony. This version of Pinky (Cliff) and Brain (Jimmy) repeats empty pathos and vicious attacks trying to provoke Alison into a reaction. Any reaction would be preferable to her almost resigned submissive silence. In his fits of domineering rage he berates her, belittles her and bullies her but inadvertently needs her as an audience, as the other. In their little fetish scenes she gives him a purpose, a kingdom to rule from the comfort of his home. As the squirrel and the bear real communication across gender, social and economic boundaries, beyond the stereotypes and societal conventions Alison and Jimmy can function as a couple. Reduced to their animalistic selves Jimmy’s rage is appeased and Alison finds her voice and their marital battlefield seems forgotten. 

However, her identity is buried literally and metaphorically by the filth and dirt that invades her home. When Helena, one of Alison’s actor friends, comes to visit, a pregnant Alison is ready to pack her bags and leave with her father. Unfortunately, his world of middle-class comforts and traditional values seems almost as foreign and hostile as Jimmy’s world. Unfortunately even bad news cannot rip Jimmy, the embodiment of the new Wutbürger (enraged citizen), out of the monotony of his life – it’s the same procedure as every Sunday, and with Alison gone Helena (Yevgenia Korlov) functions as a formidable substitute. But instead of marching into the streets Jimmy stays at home, in his boxer shorts and vest, graciously educating his now his wife’s friend and Cliff on what is wrong with the world: a bishop wasting money for a new home, the theatre critics who have copied their reviews from the previous week, mass-mediated and uneducated opinions, the loss of originality in the 21^st century, a place void of beliefs and enthusiasm and oddly enough void of any real communication.
When Alison finally returns, after her miscarriage, she starts were she’d left off, ironing her husband’s clothes and newspapers. While Helena admits defeat, seeking the tranquility of a stable life, principles, Alison needs the battle, the madness and noise where rage is not only an attitude but part of everyday life. At least with the dirt and pain she knows she’s alive. Broken, but still fighting, she returns to her bear’s den, where everything is as before. 


Oddly enough, that feeling sticks after two hours. Painful and resigned to the realization this interpretation of the Osborn classic “Look back in Anger” remains truly faithful to the text. In spite of the post-modern stage design (Achim Naumann d’Alnoncourt), multi-lingual and multi-medial approach, Osborne’s drama unfolds mainly between characters that are not necessarily determined by externalities. Thus, metadramatic interludes, cameras, monitors, snail races, music and textual breaks disturb the almost hermeneutic experiment of the rats’. Although the theme “rage” seems appropriate for a century gripped by rage, the play itself seems to be strangely resistant to modernization. No amount of flashy imagery, stage construction, and funky music and cartoon references can save it. Martin Nimz (director) version fundamentally remains a brutal, humorless character portrait full of pop-culture melancholy and timeless anger that, in spite of the post-modern bits and bobs, is stuck in the 1950s.











Theatre:
http://www.theater-saarbruecken.de/nc/stuecke/schauspiel/stueck/blick-zurueck-im-zorn.html

Further Reviews (German)
Nachtkritik.de
http://www.nachtkritik.de/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8503:blick-zurueck-im-zorn-martin-nimz-zeigt-john-osbornes-wut-klassiker-in-der-alten-feuerwache-des-staatstheaters-saarbruecken&catid=38:die-nachtkritik&Itemid=40 
SR-online
http://www.sr-online.de/sronline/sr2/sendungen_a-z/laenge_sieben/sr_2_kritik/20130915_blick_zurueck_im_zorn_rezension_laenge_sieben100.html