Kathrin Röggla

"The world looks transfixedly at the events in the news: the spectacular freeing of kidnapped people, hostages, prisoners, victims of violence. People are presented to us who were threatened with death, who have often lived for months or years under unimaginable conditions – they are forever marked by this, forever traumatized. They are objects of public interest, hyped and stared at like popstars. International media pay huge sums of money for the exclusive rights to a photo or an interview. We, the media-consuming public, take part in their stories, believe their biographies, their families, think we know their personal preferences…until they bore us, until new events require our attention. Each news story has its own half-life.
Kathrin Röggla’s new piece investigates how victims of acts of violence are victimized for a second time by the media. In her recognisable, evocative language, in her characters' unceasing flow of words, the contradictions and absurdities of our everyday lives take shape." (Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus)