A time-travelling team from the year 2099 sets off for the present day. In their luggage: knowledge about the history of the 21st century: Adschemba's ‘Great Disasters’ (East Africa, 2029-2034), the crimes of the Chinese nationalist Hao Kim Helian (from 2082) and the assassination attempt on the ‘aggressive humanist’ and German Chancellor Franz-Kevin Wegener. Four philosophers travel to the stage of Schauspiel Dortmund to turn the wheel of history before it is too late.
People from the end of the century face people from the beginning of the century. This confrontation sparks a historical force: people who are just setting out to explore their political will are confronted with the judgement of history.
The theatre noir is about a material flaw in the human imagination, which Alexander Kluge establishes in the case of a young mother in the Halberstadt bomb shelter in 1944. Kluge comes across a promethic gap between the question of organisation and the question of consciousness: »She might have had means in 1928 if she had organised herself with others before a development that would then lead to Papen, Schleicher and Hitler. So the question of organisation was in 1928 and the corresponding awareness was in 1944.«
The young woman should have organised the fight against Hitler in 1919 - by 1928 at the latest. But the urgency of the organisation, the question of why she should have acted in 1919, only became painfully clear to her in 1944 - too late to get to safety from the Allied bombing raids. The American bomber pilots fly overhead, out of reach.
Shaking things up in 1915: In ‘Pension Schöller’ (at the Volksbühne), the stoker Johann warns of a catastrophe of unimagined proportions. Retrospectivising the present is what makes historical thinking and feeling possible in the first place. Because most people cannot imagine the future, everything depends on giving them an idea of the future.
The war entrepreneur Morpheus and his diplomatic negotiator Grotius. The protagonists do not impress with futuristic inventions, laser swords or flying cars. They rely on the power of words. .
It is only through the rhetoric of the past that the contours of the possibilities of our own age become recognisable.
The stronghold of the Nazi scene in Dortmund-Dorstfeld: we have them called out of the building one by one. However, the mastermind behind the attack on Til Schweiger is not there.
The terrorist organisation in the world recognised only by Björn Höcke. We create stress and radical humanism for you. As an accomplice, you make an invaluable contribution to stirring up public unrest. Nowhere else do you get as much uproar and dissent for every euro you donate as with us.
»I look at this country and I look at all countries«
»It is a far higher art to endure peace than war.«
»You call it murder, I call it a good start.«
»If we don't ensure a better future in the present, the future will have to take care of itself.«
Deutschlandradio Instead of giving alms, would you rather wage war?
Tagesspiegel Holy leopard baby, deliver us from all evil
Deutschlandfunk A stirring appeal at the Dortmund Theatre
Kulturzeit (3sat) „2099“ Theatre – that pushes the boundaries
ZDF heute+ Moving theatre play - What will humanity remember about 2099?
WDR 1 Stirring theatre premiere in Dortmund
nordstadtblogger Painful indictment from the future: „You see all this and do nothing.“
Ruhrnachrichten Art with weapons
nordstadtblogger Action artists turn irritated right-wing extremists into involuntary extras
dradio Between satire and possible reality
n24 Artists want to shoot a baby jaguar at Dortmund Zoo
WDR Action jaguar baby causes great outrage
SZ Finally do something about the suffering of the world
WDR „2099“ – - a stirring theatre play under discussion
Westfälischer Anzeiger No animal dies at Dortmund premiere
WAZ This is how people are showing their displeasure these days and shake things up
»›2099‹ is a venture, a powerful reaction to the crimes of the present and our helpless reactions to them. The Centre's first encounter with the Stadttheater - and, by its own admission, its last for the time being - is disturbing.«
»‘The evening is a powerful, constantly stirring appeal. And it is doomed to failure, as it is instantly incorporated into the opinion-orientated cultural scene. No baby animals were harmed. What the ZPS does brilliantly time and time again is to lead the media attention hysteria onto a slippery slope.«
»The excitement and media frenzy surrounding the theatre play ‘2099’ was huge. Allegedly, a baby jaguar was to be shot. The audience reacted with: Enthusiasm and perplexity.«
»Ultimately, that's what this evening is: a tribunal. A denunciation. An advanced last judgement of merciless furor.«
»The performance undermines all expectations of scandal. Instead: ‘audience abuse’.«
»A moral orgy in a class of its own!«
»As soon as animals are threatened, people are touched and outraged, they go on the barricades. But what about the war victims and the dying in Syria?«
»›2099‹ is not one of those theatre performances that is content to ask questions. Here, answers are given that you can rub against.«
»The production is as painful as it is worth seeing. The acting is outstanding. Urgent warning from the time travellers: Restraint can kill!«
»Are you disappointed when the supposed animal killers don't even set off? Basically, the centre had already fulfilled its mission. The mendacious double standards of a bourgeois society had been exposed, which even the threat against a cute baby animal brings people to the barricades, but which leaves the mass death of people in civil war zones comparatively cold.«
»In contrast to the actions that reveal their moral core by forcing us to disclose the contradictions in our self-image, ‘2099’ is a moral shower: an extremely unusual experience in the theatre. The fact that this sometimes provokes intellectual defence reflexes is part of the calculation.«
»Today, more than ever, we need the idea of ‘One World’, but this time not out of love, but out of sheer necessity.«
