Last days

by Lothar Kittstein

During the work for the Opening Night of the CLUB DER UTOPISTEN Frank Heuel and the author Lothar Kittstein, who lives in Bonn, got to know each other. The decision was quickly made for another joint work: this time Lothar Kittstein was to write a play especially for the fringe ensemble – for the two actresses Laila Nielsen and Bettina Marugg.

As a work-in-progress, in the course of an 8-week rehearsal period, the piece LETZTE TAGE was created, a variation of an encounter in spirit, in memory, in imagination. Kittstein presented monologue material at the beginning of the rehearsals. Within the rehearsal process, Frank Heuel splintered the text. The development of the piece thus happened in parallel with the development of the staging. The actresses tried out textual interweavings, dialogical sequences, repetitions, and so on. The result is a play whose tension in content and form is fed precisely by these variations of monologue and dialogue.

The play, which lasts only about sixty minutes, is a successful collaborative project between the author from Bonn, Lothar Kittstein, who wrote the piece especially for the fringe ensemble, and the director Frank Heuel.”
www.kultur-in-bonn.de

Above all, the way the story was told made the performance an experience. The linguistically beautiful text unfolded its absurd wit precisely when the alternating monologues were interlaced and conducted in parallel like a conversation.
Westphalian News

In front of shattered glass (or is it mossy marble?), Heuel stages a farewell duel broken by mournful snatches of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, whose crystal-clear and strongly rhythmic language the actresses ice-coldly and poignantly flesh out. Exciting to the end!
Leipziger Volkszeitung


Learn more about the piece on the fringe ensemble website.


LETZTE TAGE is supported by the Federal City of Bonn, the Minister President of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia and the Matrong Cultural Foundation.by Lothar Kittstein