Altbau in zentraler Lage

At its core, this play is about the struggle for affordable housing: property speculators force a precariously employed young woman out of her old flat. However, Raphaela Bardutzky, nominated for the first time for Mülheim, does not deal with the topic in the form of a hard-hitting social drama, but rather as a ‘horror opera’ in which evil spirits appear and music is used as a weapon. Because the protagonist's neighbour is deaf, sign language is spoken on stage as well as German; the drama has two levels, not only linguistically but also in terms of time: It is set simultaneously in Victorian England and in a present day in which things are at least as creepy as they were back then.
Wolfgang Kralicek

With Sonja Isemer, Eyk Kauly, Athena Lange, Michael Pempelforth, Samuel Sandriesser, Paula Winteler

Artistic collaboration: Athena Lange
Direction and choreography: Salome Schneebeli
Stage, costumes and video: Heta Multanen
Dramaturgy: Matthias Döpke
Lighting: Thomas Kalz
Sound: André Rauch

World premiere 22.11.2024, Schauspiel Leipzig
Performance duration 1 hour 45 minutes
Performance rights: kiepenheuer theatre & medien, Berlin
Play print: Theatre today 2/2024

In ‘Old building in a central location. Eine Schaueroper’, audism (discrimination against deaf people), homelessness, death and the experience of loss are thematised. Stroboscopic light is used in this production.

A work commissioned by Schauspiel Leipzig