Sein oder Nichtsein

How the great work of art comes to be performed after months of work full of passion and tragicomic is told by Klaus Pohl in a hilarious, exciting and deeply touching way in the play To Be or Not to Be, which he wrote exclusively for the RambaZamba Theater ensemble based on his celebrated novel of the same name.

It is a poetically melancholic declaration of love for the theater as a mirror of our lifelong struggle with our mistakes. Everyone is allowed to look behind the scenes, where the fear of failure and tears of joy dominate the picture.

Because of the "anarchistic and direct style of acting" and the special relationship of the actors to the text, the author considered the RambaZamba Theater as the only possible venue for the premiere. And of course the special circumstance that Nele Winkler, Angela Winkler's daughter, is part of the ensemble also plays a role.

The RambaZamba troupe faces a double challenge: They will play the former stars of German theater and at the same time the roles they took on in the Hamlet production.

Nele Winkler plays Angela Winkler, who plays Hamlet and doesn't want to play. Jonas Sippel plays the author and actor Klaus Pohl, who plays Horatio, notes the work before and after the rehearsal and surprises Hamlet aka Angela Winkler every morning with a red rose.

Sebastian Urbanski plays Peter Zadek, who brings the Shakespeare drama to the stage against all odds and so on.

Despite many adversities, missing parts of the stage set, text problems and the main actress fleeing, the miracle is achieved in the end: the play celebrates a celebrated premiere and the troupe achieves a happy ending.

But the theater would not be a theater if, above all the success, death did not raise its powerful voice and demand its sacrifice from the muses.