Play based on interview sequences by Lukas Rietzschel
At an election rally, people meet: politicians and voters, the press and party colleagues, political opponents. The tension is high shortly before the election. There are two promising candidates – the mayor and Samuel W. – and a lot of questions: “Who is Samuel W.? A thought? An idea? Does Samuel W. represent a place? Or a time? Is he us?”
Lukas Rietzschel has written a play commissioned by the Gerhart-Hauptmann-Theater. It asks many questions and, as the author notes at the beginning of the work, consists of one hundred conversations. Between January and September 2022, the novelist and playwright, who has been living in Görlitz for several years, conducted these interviews in the Neisse city, among other places. If it weren't for the adjective “exemplary” in the title, one might think it undoubtedly takes place in our region. Yes, Lukas Rietzschel does trace the life of a politician born in the GDR, in an area with lignite mines, smog, soot, and dirt, with people thinking about whether they have to leave their home because it is no longer livable – but all of this exists not only here. And then there is this Samuel W., who does not appear but is always present, who becomes a politician and joins an obviously radical party, even though he… or perhaps because he grew up here? “Is he us? One of us?”
How does it happen that one person becomes radicalized while the other seeks consensus and reconciliation – this is Lukas Rietzschel's major theme. Now he has written a play for our theater. Exemplary.
This is a continuous multi-day event
