The Flemish author Tom Lanoye has made a name for himself in this country with his Shakespeare evaporation and overwriting.

He became known at the end of the 1990s with his twelve-hour theater marathon “Battles”, and in 2015 his “Queen Lear” was premiered.

Kay Voges staged the play in 2017 at the Schauspiel Frankfurt as an icy digital spectacle.

Now Gustav Rueb is bringing it out at the Kammerspiele of the Darmstadt State Theater.

Queen Lear has no three daughters, but three sons who, like in the original, should answer right at the beginning how much they love their mother.

The two elders Gregory and Hendrik love to serve themselves to her lying, while the chick Cornald refuses to answer out of true love.

Then a storm of indignation breaks out.

It is not the only storm that evening.

The play takes place against the background of the financial crisis of 2008 and increasing environmental degradation.

Elisabeth Lear does not rule over an empire, but over an international conglomerate.

The experienced actress Karin Klein, who has been employed at the Darmstadt State Theater for 25 years, throws herself into this role as if into a thundering river.

Costumes, stage, background noise

At first she looks like a mixture of Iron Lady, Eva Perón and Ivana Trump. A blond, steeled, ice-cold something for which there is no better piece of clothing than the elegant trench coat with an incredibly long train that she wears. Businesswoman and Queen. Just one of the great disavouring costume ideas from Nina Kroschinske. The stage (Florian Barth) is initially divided into the private rooms of the ruler on the left and the executive floor with a long conference table on the right. They meet there for a briefing. In the middle of the private sphere, Elija Kaufmann sits at the drums and from there supplies the missing energy again and again, provides the background noise, separates scenes with his use of music or underlines the chaos of high-pitched emotions.

A screen shows film recordings along almost the entire length of the rear wall.

Live cameras film the faces from below until they look like grimaces.

Queen Lear presents her faces of power in close-up.

In the end, she sits on the floor as a heartbroken mother with her dead child in her arms, in tights, white camisoles, run-of-the-line make-up and loose hair.

A poor, old, outcast woman.

A little human.

Before that she was allowed to sing the Rolling Stones classic "As Tears Go By".

Insanely touching.

At this point in time, Klein had completely subordinated her role, at the beginning she still seemed nervous, her tone rasping.

After three hours, including a break, she accepts the partially standing ovation, exhausted.

From being confused and wise

Mona Kloos, who is Lear's nurse, fool and sign language interpreter, gets just as much applause. Interpreting allows deaf people to attend the performance. It also works like a theatrical booster. Kloos comments, ironizes and appreciates the text noticeably. Lanoye's dialogues are often thin, a lot sounds very lala, more of a TV dynasty than Shakespeare. That fits in with the coarse-grained staging by director Gustav Rueb, which plays with elements of the boulevard. The two eldest sons, played by Thorsten Loeb and Béla Milan Uhrlau, and their wives serve as caricature fodder in this game. As the youngest, Marielle Layher is a shy eye-catcher at the beginning, and she keeps freezing her face during the simulated FaceTime conversation.In the end she freezes into a meaningless pale ghost.

Before the dreary end, a predominantly entertaining evening spreads out, which keeps the audience happy with lots of ideas and eye-catchers: Live music, live camera, car on stage, outdoor shots on the roof and switching to the cold outside.

There is hardly any room for boredom.

Rueb takes a lot of time to talk about the people behind the ruler.

The financial and corporate capers and the worries of the following generation become a minor matter in the face of ever-valid truths.

At the end of the day, this "Queen Lear" tells of growing old and confused and wise in a pretty crazy world.

Next performances on December 18, January 15 and 21, 7.30 p.m., Kammerspiele