Red cabbage or white cabbage - that is the question when you feed monkeys or rather "monkeys" in the zoo.

Little Michaela prefers the lollipop, while her grandmother and a visitor to the zoo fight for the favor of Peterchen, the monkey.

The little one is wearing a red dress with white dots and two braided pigtails under the straw hat.

You can't see the bent long legs behind her.

Anyone kneeling there is a tall man: Michael Quast, principal of the Volksbühne im Hirschgraben.

A moment ago he was a dying musician, whistling the last hole in his handmade tuba, much to the chagrin of the nurse who watches over him like a camp warden.

From old man to child, only Quast can do that, and his versatile ensemble is not inferior to him.

Claudia Schulke

Freelance author in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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The audience was rightly enthusiastic: this is theater at its finest in its most crude form.

Just think of the reddened tattoo on Alexander Beck's upper arm, who, as Mr. Bach, lets his spouse nudge him all the time.

Herr Koch, aka Karottenkopf Quast, has rough neighbors: he's barely tried to teach his filius, the "Rolandche", the Latin ACI (Accusativus cum infinitivo) when the new Wagner television set booms up and destroys everything.

The old couple Kress is also rough and shrill.

The old lamella socket is gone, and then the grown-up “Bubi” Menger comes along and seriously wants to set up a new-fangled Schuko plug for 4.40 marks.

The Kress couple feel like computer users who have fallen out of time: chaos, panic.

Again and again extra applause

The "Hessian catastrophes", six dialect scenes that Wolfgang Deichsel wrote in the 1970s under the title "Bleiwe losse", are still relevant, at least for everyone who can still think analogously in digital everyday life.

There were still people sitting in the stalls who, as children, experienced the Schuko plug as an innovation – even if perhaps not consciously.

And for those who are hard of hearing like old Kress aka Quast, the ensemble was loud enough too.

After all, you are in a permanent state of catastrophe, like Ms. Körner, who can only cry into the gigantic phone from sheer tension when her daughter finally calls from America.

No wonder then that she cradles the receiver in her arms like a baby.

Was that Susanne Schäfer or Ulrike Kinbach?

The Volksbühne seems to assume that the audience knows and can identify their favourites, because the actors are not assigned to the roles on the evening bill.

It wouldn't be that easy with 17 roles for two actors and two actresses.

The audience can also watch how they slip into their figures against the light behind a white pane.

The wild changing room activities turned into silhouette interludes and earned extra applause each time.

Director Sarah Groß led the ensemble confidently and dynamically, Ilse Träbing stretched a well-hung clothesline across the back wall of the stage and, together with Salima Abardouch, dressed the ensemble in vintage costumes.

The new season has opened with great theatrical pleasure.

Bleiwe losse: Next performances on October 1st from 7.30pm and on October 9th from 5pm