Die Überredung

Commissioned work for the Hessische Staatstheater Wiesbaden

Never has Charles Dickens’ Christmas Carol been told in a manner so gentle and sad, comical and serious, brief and soft, sensual and Christmassy. With much singing and enthusiasm, Martin Baltscheit describes the reformation of Ebenezer Scrooge, the cold-hearted cheapskate who becomes a loveable old coot.

Laika, the singing dog with the accordion, invites all the animals of the city to the winter circus on Christmas Eve. Anna was told about the winter circus by her animal-loving aunt Ruth, but her amazement grows when she is suddenly able to understand the language of animals shortly before Christmas. She is grateful to get away from her family’s Christmas preparations, the boring cookie baking, the childish rituals and especially the question about Santa. Even though she is only nine years old, Anna knows that this is only humbug and commerce. On Christmas Eve, Anna discovers two tickets for the winter circus on her pillow and, when she tries to sneak out, Aunt Ruth suddenly appears in her room and wants to accompany her. Together with hundreds of animals they trudge through the snow, in the guise of a mouse and a cat. The winter circus opens its doors.

The mysterious winter circus, ominous Aunt Ruth, the disguised Santa, a hedgehog searching for the meaning of life, flippant dad, Christmassy cheerful mom and insecure Anna make for a touching answer to the question of whether Santa, whether the unexplainable really exists.

“no matter what you believe/ and no matter who likes it/
if it serves life/ it fits into this world”

Der Winterzirkus is a wonderful background for festive fireworks of magic, sugary cookies and circus charms. The radio play was broadcast by Radio Berlin Brandenburg in 2003.

The winter in the Siberian village is so harsh that all the supplies are used up and there are no animals left to hunt. Only the wolves sneak around, desperately searching for food just like the humans.
When Milan, in his distress, shoots a wolf for meat, everyone is filled with dread, for folk tales say the one who eats wolf meat gets changelings for children. A few days later the village is surrounded by wolves, who in their hunger maul everything that moves. And then the wolves start to learn how to get to the people who have barricaded themselves in their houses.
Martin Baltscheit tells the story of a family living in the village, fighting for their lives and survival. Successfully, because after days of besiegement, the surviving villagers are rescued by the army.
The siege is based on a true story. In December 1927, wolves besieged the Siberian village of Pilowo. Only an army protection force could prevent the wolves from obliterating the whole village.
Based on this, Martin Baltscheit has written a captivating and atmospherically dense youth theatre play about bravery and desperation, instincts and feelings, and not least about love. The simplicity of the language mirrors the endless snowy vastness of Siberia, the entanglement of mythos and truth eventually causes the transformation from one into the other.

What do you do with a performance if the actors suddenly go on strike or are elsewhere? The director wants to cancel; the technician has already turned off the lights. Snow White Deluxe has to be cancelled, the audience is being sent home. But the audience doesn’t want to leave. A girl comes forward and thinks that the performance should still happen: if Snow White isn’t there, you could just invent another story. The director agrees. He gets Angelika on stage, and they playfully start inventing a story taken from real life – their own. Angelika, the sixteen-year-old daughter of a wealthy department store owner, has everything she wants and more. But she wants to kill herself. Only why?
The whole company gets involved in the play. They contribute their knowledge, take over different parts and search for the crux of the matter. Ben is brought in, a spectator just like Angelika, also sixteen. Ben’s story is about his unemployed father.

The play melts two stories into one. Using all the tools of theatre, it is told with a lot of humour and some feeling. One also gets to know quite a bit about theatre. But this isn’t a play in a play, but theatre becoming reality and reality only being real through theatre.