Two in One

Already Frank Sinatra knew:
The tables of the Theater Café are empty. The terrace is deserted.

Last Thursday, Red Baron was at the theater. The Badische Zeitung (BZ) titled the opening night: A great evening at the Theater Freiburg: "The Seven Deadly Sins" and "Motherland."

Well, I wasn't so sure. Did the BZ mean the "Corona opening" of the theater or the premiere of two pieces?

The "new normal" seating. Only couples sit together.
Note the banal stage set.

While in exile in Paris in 1933, Kurt Weill and Berthold Brecht teamed to write "The Seven Deadly Sins," a "ballet with singing." It premiered in the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées on June 7, 1933.

Berthold Brecht and Kurt Weill

With the ballet not long enough to fill the evening, the Hungarian producer Kornél Mundruczó combined the premiere of "Motherland "- a one-act play by Hungarian author Katá Weber - with "The Seven Deadly Sins."

The scene plays in a kind of doll's house. The BZ writes, "A bathroom with anthracite-colored tiles and a corner bath on the first floor; on the ground floor to the left a sizeable average kitchen; the living room is a mixture of Swedish furniture store interior and inheritance: painstakingly acquired, modest wealth is reflected in it - and poverty lurks in every corner. So does sin."

Anna I is singing in the bathroom
while Anna II is performing the act ... with a plant.

It is also the desideratum of a "little house in Louisiana" that Brecht and Weill based their ballet on. For seven years, two sisters, Anna I and Anna II, travel within the US to earn money for their house, themselves, and their family. On their joint tour, they are confronted with the seven evils: Sloth, pride, anger, gluttony, fornication, greed, and envy. Finally, Anna I sings, "To try our luck - now we have made it. "

Interwoven is the story of "Motherland." A mother (Anna II) does everything so her little daughter can win a beauty contest. The relationship between mother and daughter slowly escalates in desolation: Mom wants to drag the little girl from a beauty contest to a top model contest, partly subliminally, partly with brutal pressure. The peak of this martyrdom is the scene where Anna II injects her daughter with Botox.

The showdown comes in the one, but the final scene, where the girl refuses to collaborate and her mother, Anna II, enumerates all the expenses she has invested in the project. She goes to the upper floor and sits in the bathtub ... I was expecting the worst.

But then the little girl's closing words came out clear and loud, addressing her mummy: "We will win, I promise."

"Motherland" is stereotypical and banal, and "The Seven Deadly Sins" is a short imitation of "Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny." Except for the excellent actors, it wasn't a fantastic theatrical evening sitting together (?) with fellow spectators in the "new normal" configuration.

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