Die Macht der Gewohnheit

For 22 years the circus Director Caribaldi has been trying to train his circus artists to play Schubert’s Trout Quintet. Every day he forces them to play their instruments. But after 22 years the rehearsals regularly turn out to be disastrous.  This is because the artists are masters of sabotage of the daily Quintet Torture and have developed high artistic skills in order never to create any high art... They ruthlessly drive Caribaldi to despair, and he fights ruthlessly against their ruthlessness...As for the spiritual person Caribaldi, their imbecility is infinite and their impertinence indescribable; in his eyes they are radish-eating, beer-swilling, hat-losing, nose-picking, eternally quintet-disrupting, cultureless philistines. 

Caribaldi is quite unmerciful and he keeps control of his artists; every stroke of the bow must be perfect and life without Garibaldi is not conceivable. He had a hope (similar to Chekhov’s »Three Sisters«, once dreaming of Moscow), namely tomorro Augsburg. In this linguistic masterpiece, words become wondrously musical—and music becomes a nightmare. And yet after some time, this utopia developed into the bitter knowledge that it was about nothing more than a »stinking cesspool«. Conclusion: »Even when we don’t want to live life, it must be lived«.

Thomas Bernhard (1931-1989) created in his artistic comedy a perfidious pecking order, depicting semi-submission yet refusing subservience, coupled with the vanity of striving for perfection and futile endeavour in order to capture the intent of the artistic spirit and thrust it into this ignorant and art-free world.  In this linguistic masterpiece, words become wondrously musical—and music becomes a nightmare.

Marco Dott enjoyed his theatre training in Munich; it was followed by engagements in Bonn, Gelsenkirchen, Wuppertal, Basel, Bremen, Lübeck, Detmold, and Kassel. Following the 2009/2010 season, the Actor and Director has been with the Salzburg State Theatre, and for four years has led the »Junges Land«. As Director he impressed many with his varied productions, including »The Naked Truth’’, »Zorn« and »Dafne«.

Duration: approx. 2 hours 20 mins / incl. intermission