Gerhild Steinbuch
verschwinden

Somewhere deep underneath is the story of Antigone who wants to bury her brother but is refused this human right by Kreon, who only has reasons of state in mind. Somewhere deep underneath is the most radical history of our cultural memory about the limits of systems, of moral, humanity and human rights.

Gerhild Steinbuch has been guided by these essential issues to arrive at very different, very contemporary contexts. Her characters are from three generations and, as she describes it herself, a bit like people in sweaters that are too small: When the sweater tears in one place, they try to patch it up (on themselves or on others) with tape. Apart from Haimon, who always stands a bit outside. And who is the only one to retain his name from the tragedy in Steinbuch’s work: Antigone’s fiancé, who does not decide but rather waits for someone else’s decision. Undecided as to whether the sweater fits him or not.

Is identity fate or self-design? The search for identity between family and public, the yearning for closeness with concomitant isolation are the leitmotifs: “disappearing” is a play about growing old, dealing with it, and fighting against it in a world in which youth is the greatest good. And about being alone, a feeling entailed by this fight. And about the inability to formulate this.

The twenty-four-year-old playwright from Graz is one of the most successful and, at the same time – with her often unwieldy and yet up-close language – most individual young German-speaking authors. Since the première of her play “Nach dem glücklichen Tag” at steirischer herbst 2004, Steinbuch has also become a much sought-after author beyond the borders of Austria, now working with Roger Vontobel for the second time as première director.

Regie: Roger Vontobel
Bühnenbild, Ausstattung, Raumgestaltung: Petra Winterer
Kostüme: Petra Winterer
Mitarbeit: Sandra Küpper
Schauspielerin / Schauspieler: Otto David
Schauspielerin / Schauspieler: Sophie Hottinger
Schauspielerin / Schauspieler: Frederike von Stechow
Schauspielerin / Schauspieler: Claudius Körber
Schauspielerin / Schauspieler: Dominik Maringer
Schauspielerin / Schauspieler: Dominik Warta
Autorin / Autor, Text: Gerhild Steinbuch