Are you awake?

• Theatre

by Benjamin von Stuckrad-Barre / directed by Christopher Rüping / World Premiere

After a series of life-changing decisions, Benjamin von Stuckrad-Barre has managed to turn darkness into light. “Are you awake?”, his new novel, builds its story around these subjects. In Berlin, a young woman has found a job at a large tv-station. Things couldn’t be better. The new boss is great, the future a horizon full of promise. Especially late at night, when a message pops up on her mobile: “are you awake?” In Los Angeles, a writer sits in the garden of the legendary hotel “Chateau Marmont”, stalled in his progress on his new book, a romantic novel. He meets Rose McGowan, an actress whom people have been talking about: since calling out antiquated power structures and the abuse they sanctify, she is seen as “difficult”. She leaves a cryptic message for the writer – an assignment, perhaps? On his return to Berlin, he makes the acquaintance of the young woman who works for the large tv-station and finds himself a player in an unclear arrangement, leading to an existential personal crisis.

After “Panic Heart”, Christopher Rüping is directing his second adaptation of a novel by Stuckrad-Barre with Thalia Theater, this time as a world premiere. Rüping’s productions interact with the issues of our times, insistently questioning our reality and using a wide variation of stage crafts and a singularly independent approach. His last productions at Thalia Theater were Thomas Köck’s climate trilogy “Paradise” and the novel “Breasts and Eggs” by Mieko Kawakami.

World premiere 8th September 2023, Thalia Theater