Gerhard Roth

In this play, Gerhard Roth depicts a group of the petty bourgeoisie who have met for a wake in a hotel garden. Conversation flows – or dries up, due to the drunkenness of the speaker – they eat, drink, argue and exchange bad words. Gerhard Roth tells of the dishonesty of these people, of their lack of words and feeling. They don’t understand each other and don’t interact because that would require them to be comfortable in themselves. Love isn’t possible any more, either; at best there is lust or rape. The wife suffers under the coldness of her husband, and so does his mistress. There is at least still a seeming willingness to understand, but, as one of the characters says, “Understanding makes everything in me worse.” For the author, it is about “grotesquely portraying the life of self-obsessed egomaniacs who can no longer live on their own terms. Alien to themselves and their companions, they are less than shadows of themselves. They are vegetating.” (Ekkehard Schönwiese)