Florian Felix Weyh

Gutenberg
Eine sentimentale Komödie in britischer Manier
4 D, 2 H, 2 Dek
UA: 08.03.1997 · Vereinigte Städtische Bühnen Krefeld und Mönchengladbach · Directed by: Oliver Keymis
The literary age is coming to an end. Illiterates chat on talk shows, and anyone who knows how to use a comma is held up as an intellectual hero. It is time for the swansong of a medium that could fit into video cassette recorders, but that doesn’t lead to anything more than a blackout there.
The provincial book shop “Julius Hofgreizler &Sons” can’t avoid this development – between their venerable walls, customers have become scarce. So the two administrators of civilization, Sabine Knieper (alias Baroness Blixen) and Beate Schüssler (alias O’Flahertie) have got themselves into a very peculiar routine, complete with strange rituals. Only when the owner, Hiltrud Sperling (alias Gorgo) is visiting does activity briefly makes its way into their lazy every-day lives.
But the idyll is a thin veil. At last, with the appearance of the young book dealer Clara, their perfect world starts to tear at the seams. Blixen and O’Flahertie, barely 30, are confronted with their own anachronism; the game-boy youth has seized the helm: and profits are soaring. A real paradise is transformed into a false one. “We are the sequel to civilisation, made with different materials,” pronounces Clara shrilly. The book shop turns into the “Hofgreizler Media Paradise”, with a puny book corner (“Print Shop”), that, due to overcrowding, can only count on the most trusted of customers. Meanwhile, business is booming: everything that flashes, whistles, squeaks and squeals is selling like hotcakes. Is that why it’s all happened, because books can’t scream?