Stefan Schütz

Der Hahn
8 D, 13 H, St, Verwandlungsdek
UA: 19.09.1980 · Theater der Stadt, Heidelberg · Directed by: Lutz Hochstraaate
In Stefan Schütz’s play, the eponymous rooster infiltrates the petit-bourgeois confines of GDR society, itself already plucked and flightless but still very much in a position to cause excitement, disruption and liberation.
It settles comfortably in Alma and Andreas Korgul’s toilet. Under the influence of the feathered housemate, both have a change of consciousness: with Alma, it is decisive; with her somewhat dull husband it is partial. As a faithful Party member, he is terrified that he is beginning to think for himself. Alma, on the other hand, experiences a maturing process. She first ran away from the rooster, spent a whole day away from her job and by roaming about became aware of the emptiness of her machine-determined daily grind. Now she feels herself almost mystically bound to the rousing animal.
When Andreas wants to kill the disruptive animal, Alma rips the butcher’s knife away from her husband and thrusts it into his stomach. She lets the rooster escape through the window before the police lead her away.
With biting irony, Schütz portrays the anxiety of functionaries , monotony and viciousness, effectively using the grotesque animation of the material. “A play built just from a scream, that would be honest,” writes Stefan Schütz in his commentary Schwierigkeiten beim Schreiben eines Stückes (The Difficulties of Writing a Play) – and, we would like to add, even if it is a rooster’s scream.