A trip through the First World War • NEWS.AT

True experts among theaters know how to convey the essence of a substance. Paulus Manker is one of these experts, as he shows with Karl Kraus's monumental tragedy "The Last Days of Humanity" in Wiener Neustadt. This is not an easy task. how one could follow the failed attempts of the great Austrian stages in recent years. 220 scenes includes the "Tragedy in 5 acts with preliminaries and epilogue". Manker shows that Kraus's work is really achievable if you understand it. It allows to experience Kraus's experience: the increasing brutalization, the bestialisation of humanity in a war situation, the manipulation of the mbades and the misery that results.

For this he found the ideal atmosphere: the "Serbenhalle" in Wiener Neustadt. The building was captured by the National Socialists in World War II in Serbia, transported by train and rebuilt at Wiener Neustadt. The forced laborers were supposed to produce the V2 rocket, the so-called "miracle weapon". Manker uses the building optimally: the Viennese premises, such as the Sirk corner, the Café Pucher, the food retailer Chramosta are located in the main hall, a gigantic open transport wagon serves as a stage. With Georg Resetschnig Manker set up a hospital, an editorial office and a library. Other rooms are beautifully furnished historically.

Shown 75 scenes, some of them simultaneously in different rooms.

The choice is intelligent. You start like this in the game. One summer evening. It is on the eve of the First World War, the badbadination of the heir to the throne is reported. The actors lead on a stage on rails in the hall, the crowd under the public. The same is on the Corso on the ring, just in the Pucher cafe. The actors let you know which pieces you play in. This is reminiscent of Manker's performance of Sobol's "Alma". The cards are served with QR codes on the tablets, which can be used to call background information on individual scenes via a smartphone. It works perfectly.

How Manker creates atmospheres with his thirty actors is breathtaking. It puts the atmosphere. On an open wagon, the public is driven to the open air, where you set up a show trench and acted the Schalek war correspondent to the front. All actors appear in several roles. The sharpness of the Krausian language is made in particular by the castle actor Franz Josef Csencsits (he appears in Wiener Neustadt under the name of Grotrian), and Alexander Wächter audibly as an optimist. It is concluded after dense six and a half hours, including a dinner included as a funeral meal for the dead Biach journal reader in the room, not with the voice of God, as in the room, but with Anna. The wife of a soldier who thought that her husband was dead and was expecting another from a child is touching.

The concept of atmosphere setting corresponds in a natural way to Kraus's work. Because the short scenes are snapshots of life in the war.

Hat in front of director Manker: without subsidies he created one of the most exciting theatrical events of the season.