Wolfram Mehring

The origin of the parable of Fox Reynard, Wolf Isegrim, King Nobel, and the entire domesticated and feral fauna is still unknown. It demonstrates the workings of a selfish, corrupt society, characterized by grudges, malice, greed, corruption and opportunism at every moment. This was reason enough for Wolfram Mehring to once more take up this ancient material. The presentation of a typical world in which human nature is broken down, as in a prism, into animal and anthropomorphic silhouettes is a delightful theatrical task. The smug King Nobel, the greedy Queen Fiere, the choleric-jealous Wolf Isegrim, the obsequious Grimbart, the nymphomaniac Giermund, the naïve rabbit Lampe, the timid pooch Wackerlos, the vain rooster Henning, and the cunning Fox Reynard offer us a panopticon of human peculiarities, one which Molière would have enjoyed. All the figures of this piece have one thing in common: their lies and hypocrisy. And this is common to all, concealed by hypocrisy and lies: the battle for a position in the political hierarchy.

"We all live under the same sky, but everyone has their own horizons. The special charactersitic of a child's horizon is its vastness. Everything can populate it, everything has a place in it. But too often an unimaginative adult authority reduces it until it only consists of that which can be quantified for one’s own benefit, and the ego hinders access to the other world." (Wolfram Mehring)