Dear idiot? No. Love sausage? Neither. Dear asshole? Yes, that’s exactly. That’s what she’ll call him. And compare it to a pigeon pooping on your shoulder as it flies by. “It’s dirty and very unpleasant.” Then she wishes the guy that his children would be run over by a truck and that he would have to watch them die without being able to do anything about it.
Rebecca Latté, a famous actress, deals brutally. Against Oscar Jayack, a hardly less well-known writer, who used a wrong tone in an Instagram post. He wedges back again. The two know each other from their childhood; Oscar’s sister Corinne was a friend of Rebecca’s. Jayack has also just become a MeToo case; his aggressive behavior has traumatized an employee of the publishing house that publishes his books and turned her into a radical feminist. Years later, the abuse matter is now becoming public.
Virginie Despentes has her bestseller Dear asshole designed as an epistolary novel. Subgenre: letter bomb novel. Rebecca accuses. Oscar defends himself. They insult, offend and hurt each other. But don’t let go of each other, always stay in touch. Zoé, the former publishing employee, and Corinne also become part of this dispute.
Rebekah David has Dear asshole now edited for radio and staged as a two-part radio play. When spoken, the posts, blog entries and text messages take on greater immediacy. And it becomes even more obvious that the characters don’t really talk to each other. But each one monologues individually. Writes pamphlets, has outbursts of anger, loses himself in tears.
There is great outrage on every side. This leads to hatred for each other. But it doesn’t solve the problem. It actually only leads to suffering from your own bad mood. Is it possible, as a group, as a society, to combat abuse of power without tearing ourselves apart? Despite the intensity of the debate that carries over to the radio play adaptation, Despantes is seriously concerned with conducting this debate productively. And the author is obviously convinced that this can only be done very clearly. The radio play also finds this balance of fearlessness and at least partial approachability.
Dear asshole, SWR 2, October 1st, 6:20 p.m. Part 2: October 3rd, 6:20 p.m.