Off to the retirement home? In the premiere of “And it works, but” by Thomas Letocha, Gerd Lohmeyer plays a senior who is not so sure about this decision.
There is a before and an after. What comes before is: Open the window and hear the language students singing from across the street, the fruit seller calls you because fresh mangoes have arrived again, the newspaper is available at the Schaudinger kiosk, and in summer you can even have ice cream. The after is: the smell of disinfectant, lunch at twelve, pale salmon slices, a park surrounded by a lot of solitude. Exactly in between is Gerd Lohmeyer this evening, and he has no desire for this afterwards.
In the theater… and so on, Heiko Dietz staged the premiere of “And it works, but” with the actor known from film and television and from the stage. Thomas Letocha’s monodrama is about a man in his seventies, still vital but also a bit forgetful. Before he could no longer manage on his own in his 145 square meter apartment, he selected a retirement home at his son’s suggestion. Now the day of the move has come, memories overwhelm him. By chance – a fairly constructed one, but it doesn’t matter – he then finds another way.
Heinz Konrad blocked the stage with moving boxes. Lohmeyer sits in the middle with a suit, waistcoat, bow tie and walking stick. He addresses the monologue to the audience as a mute counterpart. That seems natural, just as if you sat next to him on a park bench and he started to talk in a very entertaining way. Lohmeyer feels more and more into his character over the course of the hour and a half. At first he still acts text-driven. But the closer this tipping point comes, this awareness that the previous life is over and then a gray future looms, the more Lohmeyer brings out the inside. The mind sends you into the care of strangers, the heart wants independence, even freedom. This discrepancy makes this evening quietly and successfully noticeable.