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BIRTE GIESLER
Sabbath candles is staged. However, in the course of the shared meal the sacral
rituality gets successively destroyed as Felix answers the telephone. Not only
does the family have an argument, but since picking up the phone on the Sab¬
bath is against the ritualistic rules, the situation gradually escalates because,
starting with the telephone call, the family members learn things about each
other and about themselves they had not previously known or were not al¬
lowed to talk about. The conversation develops into a forum characterised
by the search for truth when the father, who is a biochemist of international
reputation, tells his family about a unique experiment he conducted 24 years
before. As a scientist he had aimed to answer the question of whether human
good and evil is determined genetically or by other factors. For this reason
he produced their twin sons by cloning, albeit illegally and without inform¬
ing his wife. He claims that he grew one embryo from his own DNA whilst
producing the second one by cloning the DNA of Adolf Hitler. Thereby, Theo’s
grotesque narration of how he supposedly acquired Hitler’s DNA then plays
a major role within the play. On top of his story about the clone experiment,
Theo claims that Uschi suffered lethal genetic damage as an embryo which he
had been able to remedy by means of genetic engineering. Having learned this
crude news, mother and daughter start an aggressive argument which leads
Ulla to disclose to Uschi that in fact Theo is not her biological father; a fact
that she claims Theo had also known since the pregnancy. During the various
horrendous revelations, the identities of the characters, as well as the image
they used to have of themselves and their family members, get progressively
destroyed, while the events turn increasingly verbally and finally physically
violent. The dramatic plot plays through two alternative versions of the course
of the evening. The first version leads the family members to kill one another
until nobody except for the daughter is left. In the second version, which is
much more extensively designed, the whole family survives except for Uschi
who quietly commits suicide whilst Rudi, by armed force, makes Theo swear to
renounce science. The play ends with a scene that obviously takes place before
the family reunion starts. The mother is standing on the terrace in the dawn;
obviously unsuspecting, she proudly holds a monologue about her famous
husband and her talented children.
Igor Bauersima produced and stage directed his play with the Hanover
State Theater in 2002, combining traditional forms of theater making with
cinematic and new media elements. As most of the actual story of futur de
luxe takes place inside one room, Bauersima’s set was designed as a box on
the stage, accessible from two sides. Each side has a terrace. On the walls are
movable blinds and curtains to be opened and closed in different variations.
33 Special thanks to Igor Bauersima and the Hanover State Theater (Germany) for providing me
with a video recording of Bauersima’s production for research purposes.
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