Alexander Widner

Life as a delusion; man and his self-preservation: in his new play, Widner sends four stand-up comedians into a witty, tragi-comic battle of catchphrases. These veterans with revolutionary poses and comrades of the future celebrate their snappy punch lines and anecdotes about the joys of civilisation: stories about underwear, the happy homo religiosus, life in Europe, the orgasm as a worldwide success, the orgasm as proof of god, death as an accident, and the bread of the poor… With disillusioning scepticism and mocking waywardness, they take stock of the weakness and the completely normal disintegration of society. The wish for society to change – “to deny humanity, to abuse the every day, to undo literacy, to eliminate the pack…” – Widner outlines it all with an ease that acts as a parodic gesture with anti-Enlightenment impetus.
Simple minds in a spiral of filibuster: Widner mounts aphoristic maxims, improvised dialogue, paraphrases and absurd word plays into a stormy string quartet for four voices, “a finger exercise for virtuoso performers” (Widner).