René Heinersdorff is today what Wolfgang Spier was to German boulevard theater.

As principal of the Theater an der Kö in Düsseldorf, the Theater am Dom in Cologne, the theater in the town hall in Essen and as the designated director of the comedy in the Bayerischer Hof, where he is supposed to follow the scandalous but acquitted Thomas Pekny, the Hans Dampf in every alley now in the well-attended Frankfurt “Komödie” as an author, director, set designer and actor.

Claudia Schülke

Freelance author in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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René Heinersdorff has written a comedy entitled “Complex Fathers” that is unparalleled in terms of dialogue and trialogue points.

The 3-G chessboard pieces in the auditorium cheered, giggled and roared with laughter.

You already knew Heinersdorff plays like “Der Kurschattenmann” and “Be nice to my wife” from the Rémond Theater and the “Komödie”.

But this time the king of the German boulevard put the crown on himself.

Gynecologist, Habermas and Merkel

Heinersdorff took on the role of the psychotherapist Björn, who undertook a family constellation after he had introduced himself as the future son-in-law to the producer Erik and the educator Anton - two "fathers" who have avoided each other for 25 years, but now unexpectedly find each other. Not because Björn "shook out" their aggression, but because Anton suddenly said "our daughter". This made the wish of the hostess Ute, Anton's wife, 25 years his junior, come true. Daughter Nadine follows her: She has also found a “father” in her mid-fifties ex-therapist and is now going her way just as briskly and resolutely as the mother.The gynecologist Elena plays a special role. She does not appear but is closely connected to everyone.

The dysfunctional family verbally pulls itself together in the chic, neutral set. In addition to the highly intellectual guest in a checked suit, who is chatting with Habermas and Epikur on the white partition walls lit from behind, Jochen Busse in particular stands out as a soigned husband who has suffered from his nose all his life, which is why he bought a new one, but what, apart from Ute, whom he compares with cars and chickens, nobody should know. In a verbal duel with Hugo Egon Balder's Neanderthal bully Erik, both of them flourish, up to Anton's comment on the therapist: "Welcome does not always go hand in hand with 'We can do it'." A roar in the audience. And the women? The punch lines were reserved for the men.So Maike Bollow as Ute and Farina Violetta Giesmann as Nadine above all offered a framework of desperate and defiant attempts at rescue.

THE PLAY “Complex Fathers” in the Frankfurter Komödie, Neue Mainzer Straße 14–18, can be seen every day except Mondays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 6 p.m. until October 24th.