»The theme of tonight is classism, yes, not classicism«. Such a typical Nora Abdel-Maksoud sentence. Her texts The Making-Of, The Sequel and Rabatt have and are still enjoying successful runs at the Gorki. But you just can’t get enough of Abdel-Maksoud’s bitter wit. And so it is high time to produce her hit play Café Populaire in a new Berlin version – thus the addition of Royal!. Four characters who attempt, perhaps, to be nothing less than »humournists« (an Abdel-Maksoudian neologism of humour and humanists). There is Svenja, who, as an artist from an educated, middle-class background, lives from paycheck to paycheck and keeps her head above water as a hospice clown. Püppi is a salon communist of the old left and a resident at the hospice. Following the death of her husband, she is looking for a new person to run the »Gasthaus zum Spatzen«, a pub with a little stage and Svenja’s far-flung dream. What could be more obvious than letting Svenja take over the pub? This is when the other characters come into play. Aram, a member of the »service proletariat« with immigrant roots, enters the ring to fight for the inheritance. But is he really as needy as he pretends to be? A real member of the working class is supposed to get the pub. That's what Püppi wants. But does the real working class even still exist? And then there is the Don as well, the fourth in the bunch and, technically speaking, a part of Svenja. He is a narrator, commentator and her evil neoliberal side and says everything that she, that we, despite our alleged cosmopolitan world views, often think but never dare to say. Café Populaire Royal gets down to brass tacks with loads of humour and wit, questioning both our morality and our certainty that we are the good guys.

Premiere 21/November 2024

Foto: Esra Rotthoff