In Elfriede Jelinek's "Ashes," the death of her life partner serves as an occasion for extensive reflection on endings and finiteness. From individual fate, it quickly shifts to the universal, the many worlds that we, the "evil guests" of this earth, have already consumed in light of the climate catastrophe. Creation myths like Plato's "Timaeus" and Hesiod's "Theogony" are invoked in the question of who was there first, nature, the gods, or humans, and with what right the latter are destroying everything. Ultimately, motifs of loneliness, aging, and decay take over in the text, presented with melancholy, helplessness, and a desperate bitterness. A final game. ~ Franz Wille

Guest performance: Thalia Theater, Hamburg