Tatowierung

  • 2008/2009 Season
  • Series "Our Contemporary" Vol.3 Tatowierung
  • THE PIT

The third work in this "Our Contemporary" series is the breakthrough work for the German playwright Dea Loher who debuted in the 1990s. This play is about domestic sexual abuse that is written rather explicitly, and it emphasizes psychological problems that are latent in modern society. She has won various awards including Frankfurt Author's Foundation Award (Preis der Frankfurter Autorenstiftung) and Theatre heute's Young Playwright of the Year Award (Wahl zur Nachwuchsdramatikerin der Jahre in "Theater heute") for this piece.

Okada Toshiki will be the director for this Japanese premiere. He is the president, playwright, and director of the theatre company "chelfitsch" which is known for its use of hip Japanese language and unique staging. He has won the 49th Kishida Kunio Drama Award for his work on "Sangatsu no Itsukakan" (Five Days in March).

SYNOPSIS

An amiable, hard working and family-minded father; an unassuming mother balancing the demands of a job and housework; a reliable older sister and tricksome younger sister, close despite their quarrels. To all appearances, a normal, happy family. This outward appearance serves as an emotional foundation, and the family is desperate not to lose it. Meanwhile, hidden from view is the father's brutality.
Mother Juliane wants to preserve the appearance of a happy family that has been constructed over the years, as she turns a blind eye to her daughter's sacrifices. It all becomes too much for Juliane, and she seeks release in acts of self-punishment. Younger daughter Lulu despises her mother, and is jealous that her father's love is directed only at her sister, Anita. Lulu's immaturity and feelings of inferiority metastasize into aggression. Anita lives between two world -one seemingly normal and the other a cruel nightmare. She accepts what is happening between her father and herself, for the sake of the family and fearing what the breakup of the family would mean for her. The father Wolfgang, who prides himself on being a family man, takes advantage of his family's psychological dependence as he justifies his depravity. He exerts a powerful hold over the family, yet his dependence on the family is the greatest of any of them. When Anita meets Paul, an employee in a flower shop, she is presented a perhaps once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. With it comes the revival of hope for the future, which she had all but abandoned.

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