Ultralenz

Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, Berlin (2023)

In June 1836, the extreme left-wing author Georg Büchner wrote the novella of the same name as a pre-revolutionary POV of mental illness based on the real-life story of the writer Jakob Reinhold Lenz. The text ends with the sedated silencing of the protagonist, guarded by the guardians of public order.

In June 2013, a man in a mental health emergency is shot dead by police in the Neptune Fountain on Alexanderplatz. He is one of many people in mental health emergencies who have been killed by police bullets in Germany - at least 70 since 2000. The shots are fired in a wide variety of places: In homes, on the street, in care facilities, but one thing is always the same: afterwards it was self-defense, unanimously certified and decided by the police, the public prosecutor's office and political leaders.

In the Volksbühne's Videothek, opulent forest scenes meet resolution targets caressed by drones, German sanatoriums meet tender hools in Brandenburg's arid forests and 8-megapixel images from the body cam meet magic bullets from Weber's shotgun - brought to the melting point and held in the decay pool by: Anna K. Seidel.

Acting: Anna K. Seidel
Direction, text: Lorenz Nolting
Dramaturgy, text: Sofie Boiten
Stage, costume: Robin Metzer

With thanks to: Irre menschlich Hamburg e.V.,
Robert Dorner, Benjamin Winter and ReachOut Berlin