A satirical extravaganza to round off the year

To come to terms with all the events of the past year, every chapter of the ‘Bundesordner 2024’ must first be worked through and each topic satirically examined. Only then is the year considered closed. The cast of the ‘Bundesordner 2024’, directed by Fabienne Hadorn, leaves nothing out. We encounter the Böögg, who was not allowed to be burned at the Sechseläuten and who, unable to melt, develops delusions of divine omnipotence whilst holed up in a bunker. The right-wing shift and the landslide face off in a ‘you or me’ format, and the peace summit brings peace to the world in the form of a baked ‘Gipfeli’. Angela Merkel presents her book and coins the pithy phrase “Pain must also hurt”, whilst two gay security guards discuss podcasts. An optimist is visibly delighted that the world has been saved by unscrewable plastic bottle caps, and Alice Weidel travels to Wonderland, accompanied by a wonderful soprano voice. There is plenty of music-making on this evening. Certain topics are simply more fun to sing about. And of course, neither Nemo’s Eurovision-winning song “The Code” nor Céline Dion’s Olympic anthem by Edith Piaf can be missing from the 2024 year in review. The case of Gisèle Pelicot is also given a sensitive tribute in a song. A lying chameleon is treated less sensitively: it is shot dead by a marmot without further ado. And Elon Musk gets a good roasting too.

I found the show to be diverse, clever, masterful and funny. Sometimes quiet and subtle, sometimes shrill and frantic. And always a little wicked. When you consider that this concentrated madness took place in real life last year, a bit of gallows humour is just the ticket. The atmosphere in the sold-out Casinotheater Winterthur was cheerful, with plenty of laughter and applause. A brilliant evening’s theatre fun with high entertainment value!