This “conceited octopus” is already very self-absorbed: “A sea without octopuses is no fun at all. / A sea without octopuses isn’t half as wet. / A sea without octopuses is like a choir without a bass. / What’s nowhere to be found? OnTheWholeWorldNotIntheLeastGarnich / The sea without me!”, sounds Burkhard Kosche in his colorful bass and orange octopus costume at the “house premiere” in the loft of the Hofspielhaus with a smug look at the sea level.
In front of a sea blue screen as a stage background, Dominik Wilgenbus has now staged his third children’s play for the Hofspielhaus after the “Singer’s War of the Heidehares” and “Cow Carmen”, with specially composed music by Aris Blettenberg. Once again, Kosche, the bass from the State Opera Choir diagonally opposite, as well as the multi-instrumentalist Anton Roters are there, the trio is completed by the mezzo-soprano Katarina Morfa.
The singer-actors happily alternate between arias, duets and a canon, and one of the most enjoyable things about them are the rhymes of high nonsense quality that Wilgenbus and Kosche wrote together. Katarina Morfa, as the thickly armored “octopus roach” in her brilliant mezzo-soprano, playfully struggles with the fate of her name. “I have one ‘R’ too many, /One that I don’t even want. /Does anyone here need an ‘R’? I’ll give mine./Here you go!”.
The journey is sometimes the destination, as is often the case here
Luckily, her acquaintance with the fun-loving octopus brings her to other thoughts – until the shock of an imaginary deficit (that’s where Molière’s “Imaginary Invalid” comes into play) clouds the happiness of the friendship: the octopus has eight arms, but not a single leg! So off to the “octopus house” to see the doctor fish. The journey is sometimes the destination, and as is often the case here, because the kindness of strangers – a tadpole, a turtle, a cockatoo – resolves the supposed “tentacle debacle” in the realization that legs are superfluous in the water. Whereupon the multi-faceted trio happily sings at the end: “If friends are all different, / Everyone can do something different. / What I find incredibly useful: / If they can do this, then they can do this. / And because no one can ever do everything, / but everyone has something at some point, / everyone is important and gets a turn.” Whether with or without children – there is hardly a more lively way to start the weekend.
The imaginary octopus, ages 4 and up, again on November 18th, 19th and 25th, at 3 p.m., Hofspielhaus Munich