In his first solo program Dirk Stermann talks, sings, dances and drinks brilliantly. In the Lustspielhaus it gets very quiet at times.
From
Thomas Becker
Kalsarikännit. There are moments on this evening with Dirk Stermann when the word seems to describe the artist’s inner condition – he himself likes to speak of psychological devastation – quite aptly. The term means “getting drunk alone at home in underpants” in Finland. Of course, a humor worker like Stermann absorbs such a gem as quickly as an industrial vacuum cleaner. But if you watch and listen to him drinking white wine for two hours during his first solo program and philosophizing about his screwed up life, it seems almost logical that he can definitely get something out of the Kalsarkännit cultural technique.
For 33 years, the name Stermann has been almost inextricably linked to that of Christoph Grissemann. The native of Duisburg is with him on stage or in front of the camera when the wonderful anarcho show “Welcome Austria” is running on the ORF. The man in his mid-fifties, who is becoming more and more Elmargunschsch, has been a soloist since October: Grissemann didn’t want to do a new program, Stermann wanted to try it out on his own – that’s how “Get Together” came about, a piece inspired by a photo that shows Stermann in a wedding dress as the wife of former Federal President Heinz Fischer . And so he now gives the bridal speech at his daughter’s wedding, to which he is not invited because he was never there for her. So he stands alone at the laid table, talks, sings, dances and drinks: “Unlike my colleague Hader, I really drink alcohol on stage.”
There are sometimes huge abysses into which he lets look. When he reads his deceased father’s diary, it gets very quiet in the theater. Only he himself knows the autobiographical part of the evening, but he will not have imagined the complete family history together. At the beginning he had already warned: It would not be a funny bridal speech, but a personal one. Anyway, the result is a damn strong piece.