Rainald Goetz wrote plays full of fury, melancholy and hate, and commented mercilessly on public speaking. Recently, however, he has become downright mild.
Already in the early 1990s, Rainald Goetz sat in on the premieres of his plays and was enthusiastic, laughed, and recited passages of text. That was in Hamburg, at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus, where Frank Baumbauer began his artistic direction not only with Christoph Marthaler and Jossi Wieler, Goethe and Elfriede Jelinek, but also with a huge Goetz project. Three plays, three forms, three directors and, amazingly, none of them had any inherent pop appeal. Anselm Weber staged the very first night of the new management in October 1993 with “Criticism in Fortress” for spectators on the stage behind the Iron Curtain. It was an intoxicating, rambling play about family, violence and shame, or as the text said: “Long time, narrowness, terror, ART”.