Three chairs that nobody is sitting on, an unfolded ladder and a rope hanging from the ceiling - otherwise the room is empty.

Suddenly a group of people taps onto the stage.

She asks in a whisper: "What happened?" Then the sentence that will determine the evening at the theater will sound: "I'm sorry."

Kevin Hanschke

Volunteer.

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The objects are symbols of the inexpressible, as the scene shows the moment after the suicide of the British housewife Carol and the grief that follows. Many German theaters are currently grappling with the gloomy issue of suicide and showing plays that seek answers to the question of what drives people to commit suicide.

Probably the most haunting are the productions of two novels at the Staatsschauspiel Hannover and the Schauspiel Köln.

In the Lower Saxony state capital, "Anatomy of a suicide" by Alice Birch, adapted by Lilja Rupprecht, dissects the lives of Carol, her daughter and granddaughter.

In the Rhineland, “Der Wilde” by Guillermo Arriaga, staged by David Gaitán, shows how death is dealt with in a Mexican family.

While the first wants to explain suicide, the second part celebrates friendship.

Life is a burden to her

In Hanover, Carol sits on the chair and smokes. Actually, she has it all. A nice house, a kind husband, a daughter. But life is a burden to her, she wants to break out. Lilja Rupprecht tells the life story of three women, Carol, Anna and Bonnie, who struggle with the conventions of their time. While Carol, played by Sabine Orléans, is suffering from depression, Anna has to deal with the loss of her mother. Drugs are your way out. Her daughter Bonnie will then have to cope with the deaths of both her mother and her grandmother. “Nobody has ever regretted being alive so much,” say the daughters of Carol.

Carol is an involuntary housewife, had to bury her dreams because of her husband. "This house has been on fire for sixteen years," she says, staring. Ruprecht stages Birch's novel as a dramatic flashback. The lives of the three are shown on stage, with all the disappointments that schoolmates, men and society have caused them, but also with the attempts to overcome depression, for example through psychotherapy and medication.

Anna, played by Amelle Schwerk, takes her mother's death with her.

She can no longer do anything with her father.

Bonnie, on the other hand, played by Caroline Junghanns, is the most impressive figure.

Strictly short haircut, certain look: she doesn't want to come to terms with the circumstances.

Bonnie is looking for autonomy and studies medicine, works as a doctor.

“I don't want to continue the line,” she says.

In the end, she will make the most radical decision.

But despite all the suffering, Rupprecht also shows the happy moments in the family's life, for example when Carol drives through the garden in a stroller with Anna.

She looks hopeful and says in a low voice: “Live your life big.

As long as you can ”and walks on with a smile.

But there is no way out.

Birch's novel is not an optimistic text.