Lukas Rietzschel

People come together at an election rally: politicians and voters, press and party colleagues, political opponents. The tension is high just before the election. There are two promising candidates - the mayor and Samuel W. - and lots of questions: "Who is Samuel W.? Is he a person? A thought? An idea? Does Samuel W. stand for a place? Or for a time? Is he us?" Lukas Rietzschel traces the life of a politician who was born in the GDR, in an area with brown coal mines, smog, soot and dirt, with people who think about whether they have to leave their homeland because it is no longer worth living in - but all of this doesn't only exist here. And then there's this Samuel W., who doesn't appear and yet is always present, who becomes a politician and joins an obviously radical party, even though he grew up here... or is it because he grew up here? "Is he us? One of us?" How is it that one person becomes radicalised while the other seeks consensus and reconciliation - that is Lukas Rietzschel's main theme. (Gerhart-Hauptmann-Theatre Görlitz-Zittau)