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By Günter Grass

Still hardly born, Oskar Matzerath recognizes the world as a universal disaster - and rejects it. Only the metal drum promised by his mother opens up an acceptable survival perspective: the form of being a drummer, a grotesque artist with ambivalent motivations and effects. So on his third birthday, Oskar decides not to grow, but to watch and drumming.


From the frog's perspective, he portrays the raising of fascist thought and action, narrative of adultery and pogrom night, links private history with contemporary history. He is a witness, at the same time an outsider as a participant in a world in which a civilization break like the Holocaust is possible.

Not guilty, but responsible for the horror, which was committed in the German name, Günter Grass felt a sense of time. "The steel drum" is also an attempt to make the mechanisms of its own seduction translucent. Despite all the controversies surrounding the novel and Nobel Prize laureate Günter Grass, the text remains a milestone of German post-war literature. Director Oliver Reese tells the story of the eternal drummer in a version tailored to the main character's perspective.

(Program in German)
Additional information
OPEN-AIR: HOF-THEATER IS BACK

Theater in the courtyard of the Berliner Ensemble After almost seven months without regular performances, the Berliner Ensemble will start its second open-air season in the courtyard theater on May 27. With the Berlin Senate now allowing open-air events to resume under certain conditions, the Berliner Ensemble invites 100 spectators:inside to the courtyard of the Berliner Ensemble on a total of 16 evenings from Thursday to Sunday from May 27 to June 20, 2021, where ensemble members and guests will present short, improvised or musical programs.

Please note: Proof of a negative Covid19 test from any testing center (self-testing is not permitted), full vaccination, or survived Covid19 infection is required for admission. Wearing a mask is not required outdoors.
Participating artists
von Günter Grass (Autor/in)
Nico Holonics (Oskar Matzerath)
Oliver Reese
Daniel Wollenzin
Laura Krack
Jörg Gollasch
Steffen Heinke
Sibylle Baschung
Dates
December 2024
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