Good meal of the best German theatre

Roland Schimmelpfennig is one of the most performed German authors in the world, and his work has begun to emerge among us since the premiere of The Arabian Night (2006) at the Sala Beckett under the direction of Toni Casares. His theatre shuns conventional dramatic conventions and, consequently, explores new ways of explaining reality. He does so through a play of social and personal tensions within a hyper-fragmented and repetitive narrative, which illustrates very well the accelerated, nervous, almost convulsive nature of today's society. All of this is seasoned with corrosive humour. They are always demanding works for the performers but also for the spectators, confronted with a stage development where the information, scarce but sufficient, is admirably mixed with an often stark poetic lyricism where the characters elude logic.

This is what we find in this magnificent The Crack in the World,where Roland Schimmelpfennig stages the dark future of our society, evoking environmental destruction and the unalterable class struggle. Four characters are frozen in the mansion of a rich man in a wonderful valley. The tycoon Tom (Philip Rogers) and his ex-secretary (now his wife) Sue (Ann Perelló) welcome Sofie (Magdalena Sbert), an artist looking for money for her artistic project, who arrives with a companion as young as he is ignorant, Jareb (Pol Sanuy). All four are under the gaze of one who hears everything, who knows everything, a woman who acts as narrator: the maid Maria (Assun Planas). Between drinks, between curses and shouts, four archetypes unfold to strip the world bare and show its pathos. They do so without resorting to violence but without ignoring humiliation. They speak of sex, domination, power, ignorance, beauty, nature, and, above all, money in an explosive cocktail. 

Rodrigo García Olza's staging of Albert Tola's sonorous translation stands out for its rhythm and manipulation of tempos and for the direction of the four dedicated performers, although it does not take advantage of the underlying humour that nests in the work. Although the repetitive lighting changes do not favour it, we are facing a good meal for lovers of truly modern contemporary theatre that does not give everything ready-chewed.