FRERK, DU ZWERG!
Theatre rampage based on the children’s book by Finn-Ole Heinrich
“About an egg and unkind classmates. About wanting to be different and a wardrobe full of clothes that look exactly like your father’s. About allergies and the desire to own your own wolfhound. About making mischief and embracing the gift of disorder.”
“Frerk, you dwarf!” Poor Frerk hears these words everywhere in the school playground. Yet he is actually only the second smallest and third weakest in his class. He even hears them from Andi Kolumpeck who regularly steals Frerk’s lunch and, as way of thanks, pushes him face-first into the sandpit.
Although Frerk has his own wacky expressions for all sorts of things, he still doesn’t have a real wolfhound to look out for him. Instead, Frerk has a mother who is allergic to everything that is fun and a tongue-tied father whose conservative way of dressing he has to copy. But then Frerk finds an egg. A very strange and uniquely coloured egg, which also grows fur overnight. Although it doesn’t hatch into a wolfhound, it does hatch into something completely crazy, which really shakes up Frerk’s orderly life.
The original text by writer and filmmaker Finn-Ole Heinrich (*1982), who was awarded the German Youth Literature Prize in 2012, is a firework of nonsense and guaranteed colourful words, a rebellious and life-affirming tale about the liminal time between being a child and growing up, a plea for anarchy and self-confidence.
Premiere: 12 July 2019 at the Landestheater Tübingen
Duration: 70 minutes
Press:
»[…] The direction and set design team äöü – Patricia Bechtold and Johannes Karl – place poor Frerk in a world that is both sterile and violent in a fatally cheerful way. […] Behind the sober, strict regulations, chaos awaits its hour of coming; under the white-tiled pavement of everyday life, the iconic Pril flower blooms. […] “Frerk, du Zwerg!” at the LTT is vibrantly packed with colour, movement, boisterous language and rebellious fantasy […]«
(Reutlinger General-Anzeiger, 13.Juli 2019)
Direction & set: äöü (Patricia Bechtold / Johannes Karl)
Movement direction: Jung Sun Kim
Music: Valentin Riegger
Set design assistance: Pauline Wagner
Video: Team LEN (Viviane Lennert / Stella Lennert)
Dramaturgy: Michel op den Platz
Assistant director: Ivonne Gläser
Stage management: Matze Hupel
Theatre pedagogy: Luisa Mell
with: Jonas Breitstadt, Rupert Hausner, Insa Jebens, Elias Popp, Kristin Scheinhütte
Photos: Kerstin Porges, Tobias Metz