Am Königsweg

The production “Am Königsweg” was invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen and the Mülheimer Theatertage 2018, where it won the Audience Award.

In the annual critics’ survey conducted by the magazine “Theater heute”, Elfriede Jelinek’s “Am Königsweg” was voted “Play of the Year” by the majority of the 43 theatre critics surveyed from across the German-speaking world. The world premiere at the Deutsches SchauSpielHaus Hamburg by Falk Richter is the “Production of the Year”. The critics voted Benny Claessens “Actor of the Year” for his performance in the Hamburg production. Andy Besuch’s costume design also received the “Costume of the Year” award.

“Look out, here comes the new king…!” The victor, the champion, the leader, the winner, the father, the saviour, the god: the newly elected king goes by many names, but his real name is never directly stated: Donald J. Trump is the occasion, but not the essence, of Elfriede Jelinek’s new play. She poses more fundamental questions such as: Why do right-wing populism and supercapitalism always appear together? Does the victory of this king not signify the ghostly return of the “old”, “historically traditional, even if millions died as a result”? And why is the blindness of the new right not matched by the clairvoyance of its opponents? Why is everyone blind in this spectacle?

Right at the beginning of the play, the author appears as a blind seer; she bleeds from her eyes and later from her mouth. The king appears as blind Oedipus. He brings the plague and will soon be cast out, but he still sits in his golden tower on golden chairs, drinking from golden cups with his golden family. Meanwhile, his supporters and opponents are beating each other up like Punch and Judy on the crocodile. Where are we here? In a monster horror picture show? In lower-class television? A bad Emperor film? In a hero cartoon? Trump’s self-dramatisation provides the perfect template for Jelinek’s ingenious parody. And yet despair, powerlessness and horror remain palpable: about the hatred and rage of the new white rioters, about nationalism and racism resurrecting like monstrous zombies from old graves.