byElfriede Jelinek
A ruler is elected. The people go to the
ballot box and decide who will have power over the country.
They blindly trust in the one who prophesies the end of their debts and the end of unemployment. They finally celebrate a new king who promises to lead their country back to greatness. But he too is blind - with rage, with hatred, with complacency - and blinded by his own wealth from real estate, golf courses and casinos. With her portrait of the white man who seeks his "royal road" to power by "tweeting" and without regard for the chaos he leaves behind, Austrian Nobel Prize winner Elfriede Jelinek has created a text on current and future power and gender relations. The sensational performances of Elfriede Jelinek's texts at the STAATSTHEATER have been acclaimed by audiences and critics - most recently Schatten (Eurydike sagt). Her latest play links the American president with mythical royal figures from Lear to Oedipus. At the same time, it is touchingly personal in that it raises the question of what Jelinek still has to say as an author in the face of such a figure.
The works of Slovakian artist Sláva Daubnerová oscillate between theater, performance, installation and new media. She is known in Slovakia as one of the most exciting and versatile artists of her generation and is making her debut at the STAATSTHEATER with this work.
