Love and worms

In the front row

A good month ago, I attended a rehearsal at the Winkelwiese theatre, where the "netzwerk wildi blaatere" was in the final rehearsals for its latest play. I already knew the Winkelwiese theatre, but the "network" was new to me!

I received a warm welcome and was immediately allowed to take a seat in the front row. The rehearsal begins with the first part of the play: three chairs, three people and three scripts are on stage. The three people sit down and read out a text. Meanwhile, director Johanna Benrath repeatedly addresses new inputs to the readers and occasionally skips a section of the text. Discussions take place between the fragments of the stage text that I get to hear. How does it feel? Do we need a table on the stage again? How do you sit, where do you look, how is the contact with the audience and among yourselves?"

Finally, we move on to the next scene. Two people leave, taking chairs and textbooks with them. Instead, there is now music, light and Sarah Gailer's performance. She keeps introducing new characters and jumping into different scenes that could be from a film with a happy ending.

About the "netzwerk"

The time flies by and suddenly it's already 9 pm! Before I make my way home, facilitator Elo Göldi shows me the cloakroom and tells me about netzwerk and how this co-production with Winkelwiese Theatre came about:

The "netzwerk wildi blaatere" is made up of theatre professionals who work together on productions in various constellations. The research and discussions for this play began four years ago and the first text to be read out in the production is a result of this and comes from journalist Lena Fiedler. There is a lot of material, it is about romance and sexism, mysogyny and love, marriage and a meme, the core question of which is: "would you still love me if I was a worm?". This question is taken up by the character on stage in the second part of the production. In Fiona Schreier's solo play text, "Frau um die 30ig" searches for the good life and explores the "utopian potential of being a worm".

I finally got to see the whole play on 5 May. The evening began with a joint "warm-up" with the audience, which is part of the educational programme on which the "netzwerk" places particular emphasis. A publication on the play contains valuable information such as book recommendations and information on the advice centre for victims (and perpetrators) of gender-specific discrimination and violence. There will be an expert panel discussion after the performance on 13 June.

My tip:

There will be three more performances in June. I can highly recommend the play: It's a wild rollercoaster of emotions, with hard facts but also a lot of humour and this wonderful worm costume by Lea Niedermann and Linda Vollenweider:

In the front row

A good month ago, I attended a rehearsal at the Winkelwiese theatre, where the "Netzwerk Wildi Blaatere" was in the final rehearsals for its latest play. I already knew the Winkelwiese theatre, but the "Netzwerk" was new to me!

I received a warm welcome and was immediately allowed to take a seat in the front row. The rehearsal began with the first scene: three chairs, three people and three scripts on stage. The scene was restarted again and again, the director had objections and I got to hear more and more fragments of the text, but usually only the beginning or the end of a scene. There were discussions in between: How does it feel? Do we need a table again? How do you sit, where do you look, how is the contact with the audience and among yourselves? Finally, we moved on to the next scene. Music was added, lighting too, and one person kept playing new characters.

About the "network"

The time flew by and suddenly it was already 9 pm! Before I headed home, Elo showed me around the dressing room and told me about the network and how this co-production with Winkelwiese Theatre came about: The "Netzwerk Wildi Blaatere" consists of various theatre professionals who work together on productions in different constellations. The research and discussions for this play began four years ago and the first text to be read out in the production was written by journalist Lena Fiedler. It's a lot of material, it's about sexism, mysogyny, domestic violence and femicide, about romance, love and the representation of it in the media and about the question and memes: "would you still love me if I was a worm?".

I finally got to see the whole play on 5 May. The evening began with a joint warm-up with the audience, a mediation programme that is often part of the network. There is also a special focus on mediation. There is a dossier on the play. This contains the research text, book recommendations and information on networking and advice centres for victims of gender-specific discrimination and violence. There will also be an expert panel discussion after the performance on 13 June.

My tip:

There will be three more performances in June. I can highly recommend the play: It's a wild rollercoaster of emotions, with hard facts but also plenty of humour and a wonderful worm costume! Particularly suitable for romcom fans, feminists and those who would like to become one and, of course, for anyone who wonders whether it wouldn't sometimes be better to be a worm.