HALLELUJAH (A RESERVATION AREA). Director Christoph Marthaler

The Spree Amusement Park in Plantervald with dinosaurs, a Ferris wheel, ponds, bridges and boat houses was built in the GDR in 1969. After Reunification it became property of a private investor. After that the entrance fee to the park cost 18 marks, Lilith Stangenberg says that when she was a schoolgirl, she used to climb over the wall to get inside. There are a lot of stories about the Spree Park. When a huge amount of cocaine was discovered inside the new roller coaster tube, the new owner had to migrate to South America. His son was imprisioned. The Park went bankrupt and was soon closed. Since then, the area stands abandoned. The attractions are covered with grass. Sometimes the wind makes the Ferris wheel move. You can hear it turning sometimes. The deserted park becomes a hideaway for various pleasures. Drugs are sold here, former employees choose to live in the abandoned amusement park. Soon it closed it gates for good. Anna Fiebrock had no chance to save the dinosaur figure for the production at Volksbühne.

For a new play by Christoph Marthaler Anna Fiebrock as stage designer recreates fragments of Plantervald architecture in the new scenography by Bert Neumann. The adandoned amusement park turns into a reservation in where people come to seek a parallel world and find a new beginning. In the early 19th century Europeans moved to the New World following their illusions. That’s the origin of American folk songs known as country music. Their themes are poverty, loneliness, and utopical longing for self-determination. In the scenary of Planteerwald reconstructed by Anna Fiebrock new and old country songs are rehearsed in hope of the nerw parks opening fest. The creation of fictional biographies is inspired by the fact that Indianist societies were popular in the GDR and even the socialist cowboy Dean Reed was a pop star.

Unfortunately, the new parallel world of Marthaler’s heroes does not become a kingdom of freedom, and turns into a rather ugly „reservoir“ – reservation. This is „a park of compulsory entertainment," as Marthaler himself calls it. Its inhabitants ploclaim themselves as the pioneers have no right to leave this territory. Maybe all of them are just objects or parts of the exhibition. Someday all of them have to go under reconstruction as the dinasaur figure did.

Participating actors: Hildegard Alex (former employee, cashier), Tora Augestad (former country singer), Marc Bodnar (former French), Raphael Clamer (former animal spirit), Patrick Guldenberg (former homeless), Olivia Grigoli (former adventurer with tent), Ueli Jaggi (former amusement expert), Hardy Kayser (former country guitarist), Katja Kolm (former manager of the black mamba), Clemens Sienknecht (former singer of Dean Reed songs) and Lilith Stangenberg (former season ticket holder).