Noëlle Haeseling

**Winner of the Hans Gratzer Scholarship 2024 Audience Award**
It is early in the morning. Two female anglers set out to indulge their passion. With the appropriate fishing equipment from the brand ‘Fishing King’ and their years of experience on the country's still and rough waters, they might even be able to catch a primeval fish from the deepest depths today. The two exchange fishing rods, burbot and favourite bait. But they also talk about mothers and grandmothers, who have been passing on their passion for fishing to their daughters for generations. It is an idyllic scene – the shared anticipation of catching a fish. If only the lonely boat house renter with the great need to communicate hadn't shown up, sending the fishing supervisors after the anglers. Are illegal activities taking place here, such as the fishing practice ‘catch and release’? Or is it just the old story of an aggrieved boat house renter who simply doesn't feel valued by the anglers?
A seemingly small, extremely harmless drama about fishing. A laconic text that, in its displayed harmlessness, allows us to glimpse into abysses. Gender roles are playfully broken down with subtle humour. And along the way, the play also asks what forms female solidarity can take. An absurd theatre piece about waiting, hobbies, failure, deceleration, fishing and the ‘big catch’. Happy fishing!
‘It is about characters that I myself have longed for as an actress for years (and still do), and about scenes and processes that interest me on stage, that are dynamic, that bring their players into a playful mood by not seeing the text as resistance, but rather by making it shine.’ (Noëlle Haeseling)
‘The way the story is told, without conflict, in a positive way between women, is original. Dynamic, funny, from life.’ (Statement of the Hans Gratzer Jury)