After “Brandner Kaspar”, another classic of Bavarian cultural heritage will come to the Silver Hall of the German Theater on March 6th in a musical guise from the beer hall of the Füssen Festival Hall – the “Buchbinder Wanninger”. Fred Dörfler embodies the title character from Karl Valentin’s famous sketch, in which a bookbinder gets his fingers sore in his increasingly desperate attempts to find a contact person in a construction company in order to get rid of the finished books and the invoice. That alone is a casting coup, as the Munich native is himself considered a Valentine’s Day specialist, who performs texts by the subtle word acrobat in the solo program “Lamentation of a Wirtshaussemmel”.
Nevertheless, you shouldn’t expect a one-to-one reproduction of the original texts and songs (“On Board” and the “Chinese Couplet” are also included), rather you have to look at the Deutsches Theater’s second in-house production with the Festspielhaus Füssen as a kind Introducing a number revue in which the Valentiniads are embedded in a strange framework story: Inspired by Valentin’s formative role in early Munich cinema, the author duo Karl-Heinz Hummel and Christian Auer transformed the construction company of the original into the film company Meisel and Company in their musical homage, which is on the verge of ruin in Munich in 1930. The last hope is the music film “Around the World in 8 Bars”. During the filming that is currently underway, a bookbinder who wants to deliver his books along with the invoice is of course causing a lot of disruption.
And here, alongside Dörfler and Tanja Maria Froidl (the Boandlkramer from the previous production “Brandner Kaspar”) and Henriette Schreiner as secretaries, Tim Wilhelm comes into play as the Bavarian-speaking pop singer Alberich from Hin und Weg. What’s wrong with the frontman? Münchner Freiheitfrom May again as the titular count in the Ralph Siegel large-scale production “Zeppelin” on stage at the Festspielhaus Füssen, moved to take part in this comparatively small musical format?
“The word has now gotten around that I, as a vagabond with a dog, camp out at my engagements in the Füssen Festival Hall directly opposite the main entrance at Forggensee,” says Tim Wilhelm on the phone. And immediately apologizes for the strange gurgling in the background. “I’m currently transporting a 40 liter water canister to my trailer to refill the shower,” says Wilhelm and laughs. “Anyway, last summer the theater manager and director Benjamin Sahler liked to come over to chat when I was sitting in front of my caravan on the lakeshore; it has developed into a meeting place that he jokingly calls my ‘open place’,” says Wilhelm.
Fred Dörfler, here in the title role of the bookbinder Wanninger, is himself considered a Valentine specialist, as he is performing a solo program with texts and songs by the great word acrobat.
(Photo: German Theater)
His motorhome and dog Seppi are currently not parked on the lakeshore, but rather more secluded on a campsite between Munich and Füssen. “This has to do with the preparations for ‘The Magic Flute’, in which I’ll be singing Papageno from May onwards; I need a little more rest during the rehearsal phase,” reveals the freedom-loving singer.
In any case, Sahler approached him with the idea of staging the Valentin sketch as a musical number revue with modern touches. And lured him with the prospect of a small, charming project. “I love the collaboration in such productions, the mutual trust, the quick moves, the creative solving of challenges,” says Wilhelm. And he was already impressed by the funny songs, from “A Bavarian in the Himalayas” to “Whether the Earth is round like a football” to “The Föhn is to blame”, “they have catchy tunes,” enthuses the singer.
Tim Wilhelm, here with his dog Seppi, in the caravan.
(Photo: Private)
But is such a version even necessary? “I’ll answer with a motto that applies to me as a vagabond, but also to many people today: At home in the world, at home in Bavaria,” says Wilhelm. “Especially because we’re traveling globally today, it’s important to think about your roots. And the crazy thing about Valentin is that his sketches are so current because they were so ahead of his time: This Wanninger syndrome may even be there today “Even more existential than before – everyone knows that who ends up on hold at a company’s telephone or who goes privately from answering machine to answering machine,” says Wilhelm.
To equip the production, he diligently rummaged through his own treasure trove – “I don’t hoard it in my caravan, but in a studio,” explains Wilhelm. Examples? “When they said we needed a mermaid tail, I was actually able to contribute one. I had bought one a while ago when we did that with Münchner Freiheit Video for “Sea Feeling” ,” says Wilhelm. He also had a gramophone horn up his sleeve, which was used a few years ago in the family play “Gingerbread Man” in the comedy at the Bayerischer Hof.
For a brief moment, Wilhelm sounds wistful when he remembers the times of Margit Bönisch, the late principal of comedy. “The Christmas pieces were a matter close to her heart, a tradition that unfortunately ended with her death,” says Wilhelm. But he already sounds cheerful again because he has to think about the incident with the large film rolls for the equipment of the “Film Company Meisel & Company”. “When our director gave the order to get film rolls, he was actually brought these small Agfa film rolls that you put in cameras,” says Wilhelm, laughing happily. You can’t blame the young people for this, emphasizes Wilhelm, “this is a generation that simply doesn’t know these huge things from before.” It’s just a good thing that these were also added to his rich collection. Valentin would probably have enjoyed this misunderstanding.
Buchbinder Wanninger, Wednesday, March 6th to Sunday, March 10th, German Theater, Silver HallSchwanthalerstrasse 13