By Johanna Di Blasi
10.06.2002 / Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung
A great set – and it’s for real: the market-church, the city-hall, the glass Behnisch-Building seen through binoculars from the Kröpcke Center. There is damp moss on the citadel. There is ambient-music via headphones and sometimes a crackle in the connection. The observation-phase has not yet begun. Its code-name is “Probe Hannover”. The agents are known: “Protokoll Rimini”, a young theatre-collective, which is unconventional and disrespectful.
We are densely seated at our observation posts with binoculars. A window-cleaner (real) appears on the right side of the window sill. He pulls the curtain back and opens the view onto the Kröpcke. Points of observation are aimed at. Below a peer-group (real?). Sound is switched on via bugs. Via tape, a scientist draws attention to the unit in motion, a ‘managed population’. It is easily manipulated. At a game of football, for instance. The legs of passes-by jerk promptly, and they kick with the ball to one another. The happenings on the square become more complex, more surreal and more film-like. A page-boy in his red uniform signals, thieves sneak across the square, and dancers flash over the pavement.
“Probe Hannover” mixes everyday-life with game in a fantastical manner. It will be different with every performance, still nothing seems to be left to chance in this carefully prepared, subtle and intelligent game. A highlight of the forms of theatre. Sold out, unfortunately.
English by Sonja Müller