Daniel Mezger

Balkanmusik
1 D, 4 H
UA: 21.01.2011 · Staatstheater Mainz · Directed by: Jan-Christoph Gockel
Three musicians are summoning the East.
Driven by a strange longing for failure and real problems, they arrive in the Balkans. And they are kidnapped by a rebel organization who wants them to write their revolution anthem.

The three musicians are young, politically committed and unsuccessful. They would gladly be rebels themselves, and they would like to sing their music against the system, and they would like to say something. Because as contemporaries of the western world, they have long since been caught up in the discourse of somehow: "Yeah, somehow you can’t talk in such black-and-white terms, but you have to be somehow allowed to be against something, don’t you?"

The "somehow allowed to be against something"-group suddenly face the real rebels. What they want comes to pass, if necessary, by force. This is tempting, but probably not correct. The band wants to abolish capitalism and globalization, but the band also wants to be tangible and concrete. They suddenly experience "real life" and do not really know what to do with it.

The percussionist Robert is the one most challenged by the situation, and the most radicalized. His sense of justice and his political correctness are suddenly questioned. He must learn to be for or against things. Suddenly, there are very real enemies, to whom one can ally oneself, or against which one can defend oneself. And then there is the daughter of the rebel leader...