“it is hard to say what is going to happen. we are in a crisis. and there is a lot of anger. and nobody knows exactly in which direction the world will go in the next 10 years. our governments are on the side of a few rich people. they support the banks, they give money to the people who caused the financial crisis so that they can continue with their dangerous speculations. the crisis is a strange word. i have heard it so many times that i want to revolt against that word. and revolt against our market driven politics. are we five days before the revolution? or are we too exhausted to change what is happening right now? are we just here to sell ourselves or do we still have ideals and ideas for our future.

when i was writing PROTECT ME my father fell into a coma. my father is 85 years old. he has seen many different political systems. rising and falling. systems collapsed and were replaced by new systems. he was a boy soldier in the nazi system. he became a manager in the west german capitalist system. and almost at the same time when lemann brothers collapsed, my father collapsed. and maybe the euro will collapse, and maybe the european union will collapse. the collapse is a big issue in PROTECT ME. countries collapse, systems collapse, hopes collapse, relationships collapse, people collapse.

and here I am, a forty year old writer, trying to deal with all this and trying to sort it all out: in which direction could my play go, can I make sense out of what is going on inside and around me: the fear, the desire for change, the political disorientation. PROTECT ME is a personal and political journey into the complexity of today’s world. there is anger, there is sensitivity, there is a need to be protected. but by who? who is out there to PROTECT ME?”

Falk Richter on PROTECT ME, during its run in Athens, Greece, in May 2012.